Reports: Vietnam finds bird flu virus in poultry smuggled from China
HANOI, Vietnam
http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?no=284131&rel_no=1
Officials have found the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus in poultry smuggled into Vietnam from neighboring China, state-controlled media reported Thursday.
The Tien Phong (Pioneer) newspaper quoted Truong Van Dung, director of the National Institute of Animal Health, as telling a bird flu meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday that his agency had found the virus in one of 30 samples taken from poultry smuggled into Vietnam through northern Lang Son province in March.
Another test showed 16 samples had bird flu antibodies, a sign that they had previously been exposed to the virus, he said.
Dung was also quoted as saying that his institute is conducting tests on 40 other samples taken from chickens smuggled into Vietnam through northern Quang Ninh province.
The newspaper quoted a report at the meeting as saying that authorities in Lang Son and Quang Ninh confiscated and destroyed nearly 40 tons of chickens, 126,000 eggs and 1,000 ducks smuggled from China.
Earlier this month, Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat warned that poultry smuggled from China was a ''direct threat'' to Vietnam, as the country stepped up border control efforts to prevent bird flu from re-infecting domestic flocks.
Vietnam has temporarily stamped out bird flu, with no outbreaks reported in poultry since December, and no human infections since November.
Bird flu has killed at least 108 people _ about 40 percent in Vietnam _ since the H5N1 virus began ravaging poultry stocks in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
Health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed among people, possibly sparking a pandemic that could kill millions worldwide. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.
Vietnam had urged local authorities in the four northern border provinces, considered major consumers of smuggled poultry, to eliminate places where illegal poultry is sold.
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai also called on customs officials, market inspectors and border guards to clamp down on cross-border trade of poultry and called for severe punishment of anyone caught smuggling birds into the country.
HANOI, Vietnam
http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?no=284131&rel_no=1
Officials have found the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus in poultry smuggled into Vietnam from neighboring China, state-controlled media reported Thursday.
The Tien Phong (Pioneer) newspaper quoted Truong Van Dung, director of the National Institute of Animal Health, as telling a bird flu meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday that his agency had found the virus in one of 30 samples taken from poultry smuggled into Vietnam through northern Lang Son province in March.
Another test showed 16 samples had bird flu antibodies, a sign that they had previously been exposed to the virus, he said.
Dung was also quoted as saying that his institute is conducting tests on 40 other samples taken from chickens smuggled into Vietnam through northern Quang Ninh province.
The newspaper quoted a report at the meeting as saying that authorities in Lang Son and Quang Ninh confiscated and destroyed nearly 40 tons of chickens, 126,000 eggs and 1,000 ducks smuggled from China.
Earlier this month, Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat warned that poultry smuggled from China was a ''direct threat'' to Vietnam, as the country stepped up border control efforts to prevent bird flu from re-infecting domestic flocks.
Vietnam has temporarily stamped out bird flu, with no outbreaks reported in poultry since December, and no human infections since November.
Bird flu has killed at least 108 people _ about 40 percent in Vietnam _ since the H5N1 virus began ravaging poultry stocks in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
Health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed among people, possibly sparking a pandemic that could kill millions worldwide. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.
Vietnam had urged local authorities in the four northern border provinces, considered major consumers of smuggled poultry, to eliminate places where illegal poultry is sold.
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai also called on customs officials, market inspectors and border guards to clamp down on cross-border trade of poultry and called for severe punishment of anyone caught smuggling birds into the country.
