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Two weeks after declaring their country free of the H5N1 virus (determined by 21 days without any reported occurrences), Vietnam is now reporting fresh outbreaks in the north.
Bird flu kills chickens in northern Vietnam
HANOI (AFP) - A new bird flu outbreak has killed a number of chickens on a farm in northern Vietnam, a television news report Monday quoted the agriculture minister as saying.
The state-run VTV report said the birds had tested positive for the H5N1 strain and the bird deaths occurred in Hai Duong province, near the northern port of Haiphong. It gave no further details.
Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat warned northern Vietnamese to be on high alert over avian influenza, two weeks after the communist country declared a spate of outbreaks in the south had been contained.
The H5N1 strain has killed 42 people in Vietnam since late 2003 and is considered endemic in the country, but no human cases of bird flu have been reported here since November 2005.
Vietnam's success in the fight against bird flu has been attributed to a range of measures including poultry vaccination campaigns organised in cooperation with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
