luci
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Bird Flu In Vietnam
« on: Feb 7th, 2005, 10:54am » |
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HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam has banned farmers from letting their ducks roam freely in canals and rice fields in the latest effort to combat bird flu, which has killed 12 people in the country over the past six weeks.
The measure announced Monday is expected to help keep the disease from spreading over large geographical areas, said Bui Quang Anh, director of the national Department of Animal Health.
Ducks traditionally stray for several kilometers (miles), swimming on flooded rice paddies or eating leftover grains in harvested fields. The practice is especially common in the Mekong Delta, where multiple bird flu outbreaks have been reported.
Since infected ducks often do not show symptoms, the risk of the virus spreading undetected is higher, said To Long Thanh, vice director of the National Center for Veterinary Diagnosis.
Duck farmers must now keep their flocks contained in cages or in their own ponds.
Poultry outbreaks in Vietnam have appeared to slow in recent days, with some 5,000 birds reported dead or slaughtered in three provinces on Sunday, Anh said.
Nearly 1.5 million birds have died or been slaughtered in 35 provinces this year, compared with about 16 million during the same period last year, when outbreaks were reported in 56 provinces.
Outbreaks this year have also been contained to small household farms, Anh said.
The virus in 2004 raged across 10 Asian countries, killing or forcing the slaughter of 100 million birds. The disease also jumped from poultry to people and has killed 45 people since last year in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.
The Department of Animal Health has also recommended that other major cities and provinces, including the capital Hanoi, adopt similar preventative measures already implemented in Ho Chi Minh City. The southern economic hub has slaughtered all ducks within its city limits and has banned the raising of poultry in the most populated areas.
International health and agriculture experts have expressed worry about the virus spreading during the busy Lunar New Year holiday, which begins Wednesday. But Anh said the department has not banned the sale and transport of poultry during festivities as it did last year because officials are confident that strict surveillance can control the spread of the virus.
Officials also are not slaughtering all poultry within a three-kilometer (1.8-mile) radius of a reported outbreak as they did last year, and are instead disinfecting areas, Anh said.
However, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai issued a decree banning duck breeding and the sale of all hatchlings from Feb. 9 to June 30. But Hoang Van Nam, head of the department's epidemiology section, said the measure would be hard to enforce in small backyard farms.
New leaflets have also been issued, picturing slobbering chickens with swollen, bleeding legs and feet. Farmers are also advised how to protect themselves by using disinfectant and wearing masks and gloves when handling poultry.
The World Health Organization has warned that if the virus mutates and becomes easily spread from person to person, it could spark a global pandemic. However, there is no evidence the virus has changed.
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