Vietnam to begin mass vaccination of poultry in August to combat bird flu

Vietnam to begin mass vaccination of poultry in August to combat bird
flu
By TRAN VAN MINH, AP

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnam announced Wednesday it will begin
vaccinating poultry nationwide against bird flu in August amid concerns
that the disease could mutate and spread among humans, sparking a
global pandemic.

Starting Aug. 1, commercial poultry operations and smaller household
farms in northern Nam Dinh province and southern Tien Giang province in
the Mekong Delta will be vaccinated, said Bui Quang Anh, head of
Vietnam's animal health department.

Vaccinations will be slowly expanded to another 40 high-risk provinces
over the next two years, he said. An initial 20 million doses of
vaccines will be imported from the Netherlands and China.

Bird flu began ravaging poultry farms across Vietnam in late 2003,
killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 45 million birds. The
virus began jumping to humans at about the same time, and has killed 38
people in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four from Cambodia.

"Good preparation will be key to the success of this effort," Anh said
during a press conference Wednesday. "We cannot afford to allow
something bad to happen. If the vaccinations are not closely monitored,
the virus could change."

Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds. But
health experts worry the virus will mutate over time and spread easily
from person-to-person, potentially causing a pandemic that could kill
millions worldwide.

A team of virologists and epidemiologists from Hong Kong, Japan,
Britain and the United States in Vietnam last week discovered no
changes in the virus' form, according to the World Health Organization,
which coordinated their visit.

"That's very good news," said Hans Troedsson, head of the WHO in Hanoi,
adding that experts "also concluded that they could not verify that the
virus was spreading among people...They did not detect new cases."

There were some suspicions that the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus had
changed because of recent clusters of human cases where patients showed
no symptoms of illness. The rate of mortality in bird flu patients has
also been much lower than in previous outbreaks.

Earlier this week, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said test
results showed that some chickens infected with the virus did not show
any symptoms of illness.

"Among poultry, this is correct that the virus is causing some milder
asymptomatic infections. That is of course worrisome... It's more
difficult to control the infection in poultry," Troedsson said.

The two-year poultry vaccination program will cost a total of 560
billion dong (US$35 million, 29 million), said To Long Thanh, also with
Vietnam's Department of Animal Health.

The government will subsidize 460 billion dong (US$29 million, 24
million) and the remainder will come from fees charged to large
commercial operators. Household farmers will get their chickens
vaccinated for free, he said.

Previously ducks and other migratory birds had been the biggest concern
in the spread of bird flu since they were shown to carry the virus
without becoming ill.

Vietnam has ordered that all ducks and other waterfowl be culled if
they test positive for the virus. However, the government estimates
that only 10 percent of infected waterfowl have been destroyed because
farmers have balked at slaughtering their flocks due to low
compensation.

The government announced an increase in compensation this week, from
5000 dong (30 U.S. cents, 24 euro cents) to 15,000 dong (US$1, 80 euro
cents), in the hopes that an estimated 10 million waterfowl will be
culled in the coming months.


06/29/05 09:18 EDT

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