Bird flu spreads among ducks in central Vietnam

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

HANOI, June 1 (Reuters) Bird flu spread to a second province in central Vietnam this week, killing 370 ducks which had not been vaccinated against the H5N1 virus, the Agriculture Ministry said.

Tests confirmed the virus in the 2-month-old ducklings at the farm in Quang Nam province and animal health workers slaughtered the remaining 30 ducks in the flock, a ministry report seen today said.

In early May bird flu broke out among ducks in Nghe An province, the first outbreak in the central coastal region, which is 500 km north of Quang Nam. Both the provinces lie along the north-south Highway One.

The outbreak in Quang Nam on Wednesday brought to 13 the total areas affected by the disease in Vietnam in the past month, spreading from Son La in the country's far northwest to Can Tho city in the southern Mekong delta.

Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat has said Vietnam was on the brink of a bird flu epidemic in poultry after the virus spread rapidly in May at the start of summer, which is unusual as experts say bird flu thrives best in cool temperatures.

Last week, the Southeast Asian country reported its first human case of H5N1 virus infection in a year and a half, a 30-year-old man in a province neighbouring Hanoi. His condition was improving, doctors said.

Bird flu that kills more than half the number of people it infected has left a death toll of 42 in Vietnam since it re-surfaced in Asia in late 2003. The virus then re-emerged in 2005, last year and early this year.

Globally the virus has infected 309 people in 12 countries, 187 of them had died, according to the World Health Organisation.

REUTERS PDS PM0812

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