# 1166
The game of whack-a-mole with the H5N1 virus continues in Vietnam, and once again the virus has emerged after having been beaten down.
Vietnam shows just how difficult it is to control this virus once it becomes entrenched in the local environment. Where it goes when all obvious infections have been eradicated is unknown.
Obviously, since the virus requires a living host to survive, there must be an animal reservoir. The first thought is, of course, wild birds. But the virus has been known to infect other mammals as well. Dogs, cats, ferrets, and humans.
It is certainly possible there are other, possibly asymptomatic, carriers. Until we can find, and eliminate, this silent repository of the virus it is quite likely that the virus will never go completely away.
www.chinaview.cn
2007-10-11 13:56:16
HANOI, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Bird flu has reoccurred in Vietnam's southern Tra Vinh province when a poultry flock in the locality was infected with the disease, local newspaper Pioneer reported Thursday.
Samples from the flock of 300 ducks raised by a household in Tra Cu district were tested positive to bird flu virus strain H5N1, after five ducks in the flock suddenly died over a month ago, the paper quoted the Regional Veterinary Center No. 7 in southern Can Tho City as reporting.
Local veterinary agencies have culled 395 ducks in the district to prevent the disease's spread.
Vietnam is focusing on intensifying disease surveillance, monitoring of poultry raising, transporting and trading, and vaccination among fowls nationwide.
Bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam, starting in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls in the country, according to the Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
