The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat sent an official document to ask municipal and provincial People’s Committees to implement an action month nationwide in June to prevent the spread of bird flu. Under the campaign, farmers should focus on disinfecting their breeding farms, and neighbouring areas three times a week. Households must disinfect poultry farms and vulnerable areas twice a week. From June 12-16, the Vietnam Health Department will send an inspection team to support prevention activities in the northern provinces of Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Bac Ninh and Hung Yen.

*** The Veterinary Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has announced that a new outbreak has been detected in Can Tho city after test results came back positive for H5N1 virus. To date, bird flu has been detected in 63 communes, 33 districts of 15 provinces and cities and the epidemic is threatening to break out on a large scale and carries a high risk of transmitting from poultry to humans.

The department said the development of the disease is very complicated. In Bac Giang province, three new outbreaks have been detected at duck farms in My Do and Tho Xuong districts. The veterinary branch has coordinated with local authorities to cull all the infected ducks and disinfect poultry farms in accordance with regulations.

*** In Hanoi, dead waterfowl have been discovered at a household in Dong My commune, Thanh Tri district. Relevant agencies have collected all the dead, disinfected the surrounding areas and sent blood samples for testing.

According to a report by the Hanoi Veterinary Department, the city now has around 2.3 million vaccinated poultry, reaching nearly 94 percent of the set target. The city also strives to complete the vaccination before June 10.

On top of this, relevant agencies should urgently perfect policies to set up a communal veterinary board to carry out prevention work effectively.