Again "H9N2 avian flu" now in Vietnam

Bird flu has struck two duck farms in southern Vietnam, the government said just days after claiming the virus had been contained in the Southeast Asian country.

Sixty-five ducks died on two small, private farms in the southern province of Ca Mau, and tests late last month showed they were infected with the lethal H5N1 bird flu virus strain, the Department of Animal Health said on its Web site.

Local animal health workers culled the remaining 25 ducks on the two farms and disinfected the areas, the Thanh Nien (Youth) newspaper said Sunday.

The government said Wednesday that bird flu had been contained, because no outbreaks had been reported for three weeks — since an outbreak in southern Can Tho City on March 7. Under Vietnamese law, an outbreak is contained if no new cases are reported for three weeks.

The virus returned to Vietnam in January, killing or forcing the slaughter of about 40,000 birds in eight southern Mekong Delta provinces. Prior to that, the country had reported no new outbreaks for a year.
The bird flu virus has killed at least 170 people worldwide, including 42 in Vietnam, since it began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

It remains hard for people to catch, but experts worry the virus might mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, potentially igniting a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.

source:www.iht.com