By IPS Correspondents
HO CHI MINH CITY, Aug 10 2005 (IPS)

As part of efforts to check avian bird-flu, Vietnamese border guards have tightened a vigil for clandestine movement of chicken and eggs across the Vietnam-China border.

Yet contraband continues to move across the border worrying health officials who fear for the success a plan to vaccinate all poultry in the country and already underway in two provinces.

”Each day, we seize at least one ton of chickens and thousands of eggs,” said Hoang Minh Truong, head of market control department, in the northern border province of Lang Son. Contraband poultry and eggs from China are moved from the province to markets nationwide.

The avian flu virus has infected 63 people in Vietnam and 20 have died since early this year. Of the three people infected between Jul. 14 and Aug.1,two have died, adding to the urgency.

Health officials recently warned that unless farmers follow measures to prevent spread of bird flu, human life would be at risk. The government has decided to provide greater aid to poultry farmers, including vaccinations.

”Avian flu is rife in the Red river delta in the north and the Mekong river delta in the south,” Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, director of the Tien Giang health centre, told IPS.

Southern Tien Giang and northern Nam Dinh are the first provinces to kick off the vaccination programme that officials hope would put the brakes on the epidemic.

The fact that unqualified foodstuff – chicken, eggs and pork – from countries recently hit by outbreaks of avian flu are readily available in Hanoi and HCM city, is a cause for concern as also is a severe shortage of inspectors.

More than 140 million chickens have already been culled in Thailand, Indonesia, China and Vietnam in a bid to contain the disease, but experts say it is now endemic in countries like China and Vietnam where most poultry are raised in households, making control difficult.

Illegally-run slaughter houses make for another problem that needs to be addressed urgently.

In May 2005, an article published in the British journal ‘Nature’ said many affected countries have refused to share their human H5N1 virus samples with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

But Bui Quang Anh, director of the Department of Animal Health (DAH), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), rejects this allegation where Vietnam is concerned.

”Since the outbreak, Vietnam has always shared its information on avian influenza with the WHO,” Anh said, adding that the WHO has even cooperated with Vietnam by providing anti-viral medicines.

However, Anh admitted that local administrations in many cities and provinces have neglected the supervision and prevention of the lethal virus.

”Localities have only culled 10 percent of the total 10 million affected chickens, ducks and geese, while farmers are still incubating poultry eggs,” Anh said.

Meanwhile, efforts are being focused on vaccinating poultry stocks with the programme underway in Tien Gang and Nam Dinh province considered trials for future nation-wide vaccination programmes.

Tien Gang province had planned to vaccinate almost three million birds, but preliminary checks showed the actual number could be between 5.5 and 6 million. Some 5,500 households raise 310,000 chickens and ducks.

Adding to the complication was the fact that many provincial households were breeding geese along with ducks and chickens for which the imported vaccine was not suitable.

”If the trial vaccinations succeed we will scale it up,” said Nguyen Xuan Binh who is deputy director with the Southern Animal Health Centre.

Vaccinations so far have been limited to ducks and chickens while quail, doves and geese have not been covered. ”It will be very dangerous if they are not included,” added Binh.

Already, the government has acquired 20 million doses of vaccine from China and the Netherlands to vaccinate chickens and waterfowls against the deadly H5N1 virus.

Alongside, veterinarians are teaching local farmers how to administer the vaccine to chickens, ducks and quail. Poultry farmers with large stocks are being asked to ensure that all of their birds can undergo vaccination.

A parallel programme of ”information and explanation” has been launched, appealing to people to desist from eating vaccinated chickens within the 30-day period.

Poultry farmers are being asked to record systematically the clinical signs and symptoms they notice on special forms provided them by health officials.

”We will plan to ensure that every single duck and chicken gets vaccinated,” Pham Minh Dao, head of Nam Dinh ‘s animal health department said.

In the capital city, an ‘action month’ is underway to contain bird flu. The danger of further outbreak is high because, as in the provinces, many households keep poultry and the city has numerous illegal slaughterhouses and meat outlets.

The action month covers both people and poultry and involves such stringent actions that ban the breeding of poultry in households that have not been checked and cleared for bird flu by authorities.

Anton Rychener, chief representative for the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), believes that the spread of the disease has been limited partly because it is still summer. ”We must be prepared for the cold season that starts in October and December”.

Overall, 60 people have died of the disease since the beginning of the epidemic in 2003, including 12 Thais, four Cambodians and three Indonesians.

Heath experts have warned the virus could spark a global epidemic if avian flu develops the ability to spread rapidly from person to person. Most cases so far have been traced to close human contact with infected birds.

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