H5N1 bird flu spreads to 21 localities in Vietnam

Vietnam has reported 67 cases of H5N1 bird flu in 21 provinces and cities, said the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on Tuesday.

Since the beginning of 2014, the country has culled some 64,000 poultry. Several small outbreaks in household livestock have been discovered, isolated and processed to prevent them from spreading, said the department.

In a related development, Vietnam's National Steering Committee for Avian Influenza Prevention held a meeting on Tuesday to propose preventive measures for controlling the plague.

The Vietnamese government e-portal quoted the committee on Tuesday as saying that on average three outbreaks occur in each province.

The recent strong outbreaks of bird flu were attributed to the complicated conditions of the country's weather during January and February as well as busy activities of transporting and trading poultry for Lunar New Year holiday, the committee said.

In addition, several localities failed to give injection for poultry, weakeningtheir immunity against the disease.

As a result, MARD recently issued 7.2 million doses of RE6 vaccine from the reserve fund for the provinces to prevent the plague from spreading, said the committee.

Dam Xuan Thanh, vice head of the Department of Animal Health said at the meeting that an alarming high proportion of 60 percent of alive poultry in markets are shown positive with H5N1 virus.

The risk of H5N1 bird flu outbreaks is very high if local authorities are unable to increase monitoring, discovering and handling the epidemic, said Thanh.