Bird flu cases under control

January 7, 2009 in Uncategorized

Although 2% of the nation’s poultry is affected, officials are managing.

HA NOI — Viet Nam has managed to place bird flu under control after the disease appeared in some households, said the director of the Veterinary Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Bui Quang Anh.

But the risk of recurrence remains high as nearly 2 per cent of the country’s poultry were still affected with the H5N1 strain of the virus, Anh said at a workshop in Ha Noi yesterday.

In 2008, bird flu was discovered in 80 communes in 27 cities and provinces nationwide. The number of poultry killed and culled reached more than 106,000, down 70 per cent from 2007, according to the Veterinary Department.

The achievement was partly attributed to the successful implementation of the second phase of vaccination for poultry in 2008. As part of the plan, 260 million fowls were vaccinated.

In 2008 there was also an outbreak of blue-ear disease in pigs in 26 cities and provinces, which killed more than 300,000 pigs. The disease was eventually controlled in September 2008, Anh said.

The foot-and-mouth disease in livestock also hit 14 provinces in 2008, affecting more than 2,400 bulls and buffaloes and 67 pigs.

To prevent recurrence of the diseases this year, the veterinary sector will continue to speed up information campaigns and education tasks, targeting illegal poultry traffickers across borders and farmers, Anh said.

The sector will also improve planning for poultry and water fowl breeding, restructure poultry trading, raise hygiene standards in slaughter houses and strengthen the inspection and supervision of the transport and slaughter of poultry, he said.

To prevent foot-and-mouth among livestock, the veterinary sector will speed up vaccination work as part of the national plan to stamp out the disease during the 2006-10 period. Localities are responsible for vaccinating livestock in high-risk areas.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has signed a decision to provide central Nghe An Province with 300,000 doses of foot-and-mouth disease vaccine, and 3,000 litres of Benkocid antiseptic free of charge from the national reserve system.

New case of deadly Avian flu

Director of the Ministry of Health’s Department of Preventive Medicine and Environment Nguyen Huy Nga yesterday confirmed that the first new case of avian influenza type A/H5 since last March had been discovered in Thanh Hoa Province. Last Friday, an 8-year-old girl living in Dien Trung Commune, Ba Thuoc District was hospitalised with such symptoms as fever, cough, sore throat and difficult breathing. “Results of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) laboratory tests on Saturday show positive for avian influenza type A/H5,” said Nga. “At the moment, the girl is recovering,” she added. An epidemiological investigation revealed that the girl and her family ate diseased birds a week ago. Other fowls have been falling sick and dying in the area. The department proposed that NIHE and Thanh Hoa’s Preventive Medicine and Environment Department should quarantine the area and send staff to handle the outbreak. It also recommended people should not eat sick chickens and report all dead or sick birds to local authorities. They should also only eat cooked food, drink water that has been boiled and wash their hands frequently with soap. According to health ministry’s statistics, Viet Nam has had a total of 107 type A/H5N1 positive cases since December 2003, of which 52 proved fatal.

The foot-and-mouth disease was discovered in the central province on December 19. It has since spread across almost 10 districts, according to the province’s Department of Veterinary.

Anh added that authorised agencies would keep a close watch on the origin of pigs to combat blue-ear disease.

Ha Noi’s efforts

The Ha Noi Veterinary Department has increased inspection of the slaughtering and trade of poultry to ensure food safety for local consumers for Tet.

It has also focused on speeding up information campaigns and food safety education and hygiene standards. It has also sterilised poultry wholesale markets such as Ha Vi market in Thuong Tin District, Minh Khai market in Tu Liem District and Ba La market in Ha Dong District.

Ha Noi currently has more than 1.6 million pigs and 14 million live fowls. Together, they meet an estimated 70-75 per cent of local citizens’ demand for fresh products.

The city has built 41 safe slaughtering houses and more than 70 supermarkets specialising in trading safe products.

High-risk areas

In HCM City, many “hot spots” of unquarantined poultry trading stores have appeared. Along Pham Hung Street in Binh Chanh District, more than 10 live poultry trading stores opened temporarily.

Unquarantined poultry products are also available in some markets in Thu Duc and Go Vap districts.

According to Huynh Huu Loi, head of the municipal veterinary department, measures to stamp out all these “hot spots” have proved ineffective.

“It is essential to establish close co-operation between veterinary workers and local authorities to deal with the problem,” he said.

More education on food safety and hygiene is needed, he said.

Nguyen Xuan Binh, deputy director of a veterinary centre in HCM City, said the southern region is experiencing cold weather – a favourable condition for the H5N1 virus to breed.

“It is dangerous for unquarantined poultry slaughtering and trade to exist without the supervision of veterinary workers,” he said.

“Veterinary workers have tested samples of poultry products in some markets in Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Tien Giang, Long An, Tra Vinh and Ben Tre and found 3 per cent of tested poultry products in Long An and Tien Giang Provinces are positive for H5N1,” he said.

Local citizens in HCM City consume between 100,000-200,000 live fowls each day, 50 per cent of which were transported into the city from other provinces. —