HANOI, July 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Vietnam has faced no new outbreaks of bird flu, but echo of previous outbreaks, director of the country's Department of Animal Health was quoted by local media on Friday as saying.

    "We confirm that there is no relapse of bird flu. Incomplete dealing with the previous outbreaks in some localities has caused a number of fowls, which survive from the outbreaks, to die from avian influenza virus H5," said director Bui Quang Anh.

    The death of fowls in the two southern provinces of Dong Thap and Bac Lieu is only echo of the previous outbreak, he stressed, explaining that relapse of bird flu is not announced until new generations of poultry are infected with the disease after the previous outbreak is over for a certain period of time.

    With the viewpoint, Anh reaffirmed that the echo of the previous outbreak has been detected in just two provinces. Recently, 439 sick fowls were reported in Dong Thap, and 5,725 others in Bac Lieu, all of them were handled properly, he noted.

    "Sources of disease in the previous outbreaks can still exist. Moreover, some localities have not completely obeyed the department's strict regulations on recovering poultry flocks relating to baby fowls and environment," Anh said.

    If the relapse of bird flu happened, its scale could not be large because Vietnam had made great preparations for containing it, he added.

    However, local media run many articles, expressing worries about the reoccurrence of bird flu, not only in Dong Thap and Bac Lieu, but also Tien Giang and several other southern provinces, which has recently affected around 20,000 fowls.

    According to the Regional Veterinary Center in Ho Chi Minh City,samples taken from poultry in five southern provinces of Dong Thap,Can Tho, Tien Giang, Bac Lieu and Vinh Long and one central province of Quang Ngai tested positive to H5. It said bird flu mayspread to other localities in July and August.

    In late March 2004, Vietnam declared an end to bird flu that killed 17 percent of its poultry population, and claimed 16 human lives since its outbreak last December. A total of 43.2 million fowls nationwide either died or were culled, causing the local poultry industry to suffer direct losses of 1.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (82.8 million US dollars). Enditem