VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has issued an urgent warning of bird flu after the deadly disease was recently detected in Tay Ninh Province.

At a February 5 meeting in Hanoi, the National Steering Committee for Bird Flu Control reported that bird flu recurred in Tay Ninh in late January, with outbreaks found at two farms in Ben Cau District and Tay Ninh Town.

The total number of dead, sick, and culled birds amounted to nearly 3,500, according to the Animal Health Department under the MARD.

Tay Ninh borders Cambodia where four out of five A/H5N1 human cases were confirmed dead in January 2013.

It is dangerous that all the four dead cases live in areas that share borders with Vietnamese localities.

There is growing concern about a recurrence of bird flu when large amounts of chickens are used for meat during the lunar New Year (Tet) holiday.

In addition, poor-quality chickens imported from China have been found in Hanoi’s Ha Vi poultry wholesale market since late January.

Between one to two tonnes of discarded chickens were transported to the market from border provinces, said Nguyen Duc Trong, Deputy Head of the Livestock Department under the MARD.

He warned about the lax management of controlling poultry imports in border provinces that could increase a potential risk of bird flu.

MARD Minister Cao Duc Phat asked localities and relevant agencies to strengthen inspections and monitoring to early detect and deal with new outbreaks in high-risk areas, especially along the border.

He reminded the veterinary service to devise prevention plans to cope with any possible worse cases.

The public security force was asked to work closely with the veterinary service to keep a close watch on the transport and trading of imported poultry and related products of unknown origin.

Bird flu affected localities were required to immediately cull suspected birds, sterilise farms, control the transport of sick chickens, and vaccinate poultry flocks.  

Source: VOV