HANOI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has imported 200 million doses of bird flu vaccines for poultry from China since early this month, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Tuesday.

    Of the total vaccines, 100 million doses will be used to vaccinate fowls in the southern region, and the rest in the northern and central ones, the paper quoted the Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

    The country has so far this year vaccinated over 164 million fowls in 63 out of its 64 cities and provinces, including nearly 87.4 million chickens, over 72.8 million ducks and roughly 3.9 million white-winged ducks, said the department.

    Bird flu is now hitting three communes in northern Thai Nguyen province and the two southern provinces of Dong Thap and Tra Vinh, according to the department.

    Bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam, starting in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls in the country.