HANOI,Sept. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- Bird flu, which has almost disappeared in Vietnam's southern localities, has recently killed nearly 300 fowls in northern Hai Duong province and central Quang Tri province.

    "After testing specimens from affected poultry, we confirm that bird flu stroke a quail-raising household in Hai Duong's Tu Ky district on Aug. 20, and a chicken-raising family in Quang Tri's Hai Lang district on Aug. 19," Bui Quang Anh, director of Vietnam's Department of Animal Health, said at a press briefing here on Wednesday.

    Bird flu killed 200 quails out of a flock of 2,500, and a number of chickens out of a flock of 100, he noted, adding that local agencies and residents culled the unaffected ones to preventpotential spread of the disease.

    Vietnam, which is beefing up anti-bird flu measures such as disinfecting farms, monitoring the transport and import of fowls and their eggs, and raising public awareness of the disease, hopesto completely eradicate bird flu viruses, the H5N1 strain in particularly in the next five or six years.

    "We hope to eliminate H5N1 by 2010. This is a difficult task because bird flu involves in migrant birds and requires synchronous coordination between Vietnam and neighboring regions,"Anh said.

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