The Mekong Delta provinces risk a massive bird flu recurrence because of free-range duck farming and the inadequate control of poultry transport and trade.
Dong Thap Province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said large numbers of unvaccinated ducks roamed free around local rice farms.
“It is hard to control the free range ducks in the fields,” the department’s vice manager Duong Nghia Quoc said.
Ducks account for 80 percent of the province’s poultry, he added.
The situation was the same in An Giang and Kien Giang provinces.
“There is no quarantine documentation for ducks roaming from one place to another, so we can only drive them away and ask their owners to retrieve them back to their home,” the head of Hau Giang Province’s Animal Health Department Nguyen Hien Trung said.
The number of unvaccinated ducks in the delta provinces was unknown.
Another problem was the provinces’ loose control on fowl trade and transportation.
All the provinces have set up epidemic control stations on the roads but poultry are mainly transported on the extensive river networks which are hard to police.
The trade of unquarantined poultry was rampant at suburban markets because of local authorities’ loose management of communes and hamlets.
It was impossible for animal health taskforces to check the markets daily, Quoc said.
“The provincial administration has asked districts and communes to establish a central place to sell poultry to help control the epidemic but they haven’t complied yet,” he said.
Ten provinces, including the Mekong Delta’s Vinh Long Province, have reported bird flu this year and five people out of every six who report H5N1 infections have died.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said of the 106 human bird flu cases confirmed in Vietnam, 52 have been fatal since late 2003.
The latest victim was an 11-year-old boy from the northern province of Ha Nam who died last week.
Vietnam will conduct experiments on a human bird flu vaccine later this month and hope to mass-produce it by the end of next year.
Dong Thap Province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said large numbers of unvaccinated ducks roamed free around local rice farms.
“It is hard to control the free range ducks in the fields,” the department’s vice manager Duong Nghia Quoc said.
Ducks account for 80 percent of the province’s poultry, he added.
The situation was the same in An Giang and Kien Giang provinces.
“There is no quarantine documentation for ducks roaming from one place to another, so we can only drive them away and ask their owners to retrieve them back to their home,” the head of Hau Giang Province’s Animal Health Department Nguyen Hien Trung said.
The number of unvaccinated ducks in the delta provinces was unknown.
Another problem was the provinces’ loose control on fowl trade and transportation.
All the provinces have set up epidemic control stations on the roads but poultry are mainly transported on the extensive river networks which are hard to police.
The trade of unquarantined poultry was rampant at suburban markets because of local authorities’ loose management of communes and hamlets.
It was impossible for animal health taskforces to check the markets daily, Quoc said.
“The provincial administration has asked districts and communes to establish a central place to sell poultry to help control the epidemic but they haven’t complied yet,” he said.
Ten provinces, including the Mekong Delta’s Vinh Long Province, have reported bird flu this year and five people out of every six who report H5N1 infections have died.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said of the 106 human bird flu cases confirmed in Vietnam, 52 have been fatal since late 2003.
The latest victim was an 11-year-old boy from the northern province of Ha Nam who died last week.
Vietnam will conduct experiments on a human bird flu vaccine later this month and hope to mass-produce it by the end of next year.
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