Bird flu scare prompts MARD to take action

Pham Van Dong, head of the Animal Health Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), said three cases of H7N9 had been detected in Guangzhou.

Officials from the agriculture ministry held an emergency meeting yesterday to monitor the situation.

Dong said H7N9 was easily transmitted from fowls to humans and was deadly. He added that it was usually detected in smuggled poultry.

The ministry will co-ordinate with relevant departments of the trade and defence ministries and the police to try and prevent the virus entering the country.

Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat said the number of infections of H7N9 could rise fast. Poultry infected usually did not show any clear symptoms and could spread easily the virus, he added.

He has asked all localities to step up preventative measures and to increase the awareness of residents, especially those in the northern border area.

The animal health department of central Da Nang city has been keeping a close watch on the bird flu situation in order to timely discover and deal with abnormal poultry deaths.

The disease, which has yet to be recorded in the city, has hit the Central Highlands and central provinces and killed two people in the southern provinces of Binh Phuoc and Dong Thap so far this year.

The department has vaccinated fowl across the city.

The municipal agricultural sector has also provided 1.5 tonnes of chemicals for localities to disinfect, breading farms and slaughterhouses.

Households have been asked to inform local veterinarians if strange symptoms appear in their fowl.

Da Nang has 400,000 heads of poultry and eight main slaughterhouses. To ensure food safety, all small abattoirs will be closed by February 28.

Drastic measures have also been carried out in the southern province of Dong Nai in order to prevent all strains of avian influenza.

Head of the provincial Animal Health Department Tran Van Quang said there is a risk that the flu could break out in the province as it now has nearly 12 million chickens.

Meanwhile, the northernmost province of Ha Giang has adopted synchronous measures to prevent the spread of avian influenza A/H7N9, which is troubling neighbouring China.

Provincial Departments of Industry and Trade, and Agriculture and Rural Development have partnered with the Customs Department, Police and the Border Guard Command to increase market management in order to prevent illegal cross-border poultry imports.

People’s Committees at municipal and district levels have instructed towns and communes to coordinate with organisations to enhance information work along with encouraging people to detect and report cases of poultry smuggling to relevant agencies.

Sharing a 274km border with China, the mountainous province is at high risk of H7N9 bird flu. Additionally, local people’s awareness of avian influenza remains limited, especially at border communes.

Therefore, it is necessary for Ha Giang to mobilise its entire political system in the fight against the disease.

The northern mountainous province of Lang Son has also instructed departments, branches, agencies and localities to intensify preventive measures against avian influenza and other infectious diseases.

To Hung Khoa, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said the province has increased the capacity of the supervisory system, especially at border gates.

Lang Son has also poured more investment into health facilities across the province, ensuring finance, medicine, chemicals and equipment when needed, he said.

Apart from awareness-raising work, the province has also given more importance to medical quarantine at border gates, hindering the penetration of dangerous diseases.

Facing an outbreak of influenza A/H5N1, the southern province of Tay Ninh has promptly sprayed disinfectants, vaccinated and isolated sick poultry along with increasing quarantine for imported poultry products.

The locality has also culled poultry products of unknown origins illegally imported through border gates.
Local people have been encouraged to avoid any contact with dead fowls and report mass deaths of poultry to relevant units as soon as possible.

Nguyen Van May, head of the Tay Ninh animal health branch, said by February 12, the province detected four H5N1 hotbeds in Ben Cau and Chau Thanh districts.