Special report: Global fight against bird flu

A Vietnamese animal health inspector sits next to poultry cages as a seller waits for customers at a wholesale poultry market in Hanoi, Vietnam November 3, 2005. (Xinhua/Reuters)

    HANOI, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Four ducks from two farms in Vietnam's southern Ben Tre province were infected with bird flu virus strain H5, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Thursday.

    Four out of 329 specimens from ducks in the farms in Thanh Phucdi strict were tested positive to H5, the paper quoted sources from the provincial Veterinary Bureau.

    The bureau has culled flocks having the affected ducks, and disinfected the farms. It is taking more specimens from ducks in other farms to test for bird flu viruses.

    To prevent potential outbreaks of the disease among fowls and humans, the Vietnamese government has placed a temporary ban on import of live poultry and related products from countries hit by the disease, and instructed localities and agencies to beef up management and inspection of transport, slaughtering, trade and import of fowls and related products, combat poultry smuggling more fiercely, and enforce the existing ban on raising fowls in inner areas of major cities.

    Bird flu outbreaks, starting in Vietnam in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls. The last outbreak of bird flu among poultry in the country was in December 2005, according to the Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Enditem