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Vietnam to lift ban on hatching of ducks, geese
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam's government will lift a ban on the hatching of ducks and geese because recent outbreaks of bird flu did not involve vaccinated waterfowl, an official said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Agriculture is working on regulations that would allow farmers to resume hatching and restocking waterfowl beginning March 1 with some conditions, said Hoang Van Nam, deputy director of the Department of Animal Health.
The government imposed the ban in 2005 in a bid to prevent the spread of bird flu because waterfowl can carry the virus without showing symptoms.
However, vaccinated waterfowl were not the culprits in recent bird flu outbreaks which killed or forced the slaughter of about 40,000 birds in eight provinces in the southern Mekong Delta, Nam said.
"Almost all recent outbreaks involved ducks that were not vaccinated," he said.
Under the new regulations, poultry farmers will have to vaccinate all newly restocked waterfowl, and hatching facilities must be located far from the residential areas, he said.
Although no outbreaks among poultry have been reported in Vietnam for three weeks, Nam warned that the risk of a resurgence of bird flu remains high.
"The virus is still in the environment, and cool weather, smuggled birds from other countries and wild birds also add to the risk of a bird flu resurgence," he said.
The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed at least 166 people worldwide, including 42 in Vietnam, since it began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
It remains hard for people to catch, but experts worry the virus may mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, potentially igniting a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam's government will lift a ban on the hatching of ducks and geese because recent outbreaks of bird flu did not involve vaccinated waterfowl, an official said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Agriculture is working on regulations that would allow farmers to resume hatching and restocking waterfowl beginning March 1 with some conditions, said Hoang Van Nam, deputy director of the Department of Animal Health.
The government imposed the ban in 2005 in a bid to prevent the spread of bird flu because waterfowl can carry the virus without showing symptoms.
However, vaccinated waterfowl were not the culprits in recent bird flu outbreaks which killed or forced the slaughter of about 40,000 birds in eight provinces in the southern Mekong Delta, Nam said.
"Almost all recent outbreaks involved ducks that were not vaccinated," he said.
Under the new regulations, poultry farmers will have to vaccinate all newly restocked waterfowl, and hatching facilities must be located far from the residential areas, he said.
Although no outbreaks among poultry have been reported in Vietnam for three weeks, Nam warned that the risk of a resurgence of bird flu remains high.
"The virus is still in the environment, and cool weather, smuggled birds from other countries and wild birds also add to the risk of a bird flu resurgence," he said.
The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed at least 166 people worldwide, including 42 in Vietnam, since it began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
It remains hard for people to catch, but experts worry the virus may mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, potentially igniting a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.