Agriculture minister calls for quick handling of bird flu outbreaks

ABO/NDO - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong has requested local authorities to quickly detect and deal with bird flu outbreaks, especially at small household farms.

Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong speaking at a conference on bird flu prevention (Photo: MARD)

Cuong said at a conference on February 13 that such actions are needed so as to not affect healthy farming facilities at a time when unfavourable weather, increased goods transport and traditional slaughtering practices with make it difficult to counter the epidemic.

He noted that large-scale chicken farming is now accounting for a large part but there remains a small number of household farms, where outbreaks can still easily occur.

The agriculture minister asked local authorities to disinfect the environment with quicklime powder and review their vaccine demand for some diseases so that proposals can be made to the government to provide vaccines from the national reserve.

According to the Department of Animal Health, Vietnam had 9 bird flu outbreaks caused by the A/H5N6 virus as of February 11, with more than 43,000 poultry culled in Hanoi and the provinces of Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An.

Bird flu is currently well contained with just 1-2 outbreaks at small household farms scattered in each province. But the disease could become more complicated in the months ahead, adding risks to public health, especially amid the new coronavirus epidemic.

To date, Vietnam has reported no human infection of the A/H5N6 virus.

(Source: NDO)