Vietnamese family tested negative for bird flu

HANOI, Jan 2 (Reuters) Four members of a Vietnamese family who were suspected of having bird flu after eating sick chickens have been tested negative for the deadly disease, health officials today said.

''All required tests were conducted thoroughly and they did not have bird flu,'' a doctor at Nam Can Hospital in the southern province of Ca Mau said.

Ca Mau, along with Bac Lieu and Hau Giang, is one of three Mekong delta provinces where thousands of ducks and chicken have been slaughtered since Vietnam's latest bird flu outbreak was spotted on December 11.

There have been no human infections confirmed since the emergence of the H5N1 virus outbreak, the first in Vietnam since August.

Agriculture officials said the risk of recurrence elsewhere in the country was high due to wild bird migration and poultry smuggling.

The government has ordered animal health authorities and police to tighten control of poultry transport, especially in the provinces bordering China. It is particularly concerned about the disease spreading during the Lunar New Year festival when poultry consumption rises.

Bird flu has killed 42 of the 93 people infected in Vietnam.

The Southeast Asian country, which has had no human bird flu cases since late 2005, has a human death toll second only to Indonesia's 57, according to the World Health Organisation.

REUTERS SC HS0949