HCMCity (VNA) –The HCM City administration has asked local authorities tourgently take preventive measures against a possible A/H5N1 bird flu outbreak.

TheDepartment of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD) has recorded 13 bird flu infections in the last 21 days at15 households in seven provinces’ 11 communes.

Ofthese there was one case of A/H5N6 in the central province of Quang Ngai, and12 cases of A/H5N1 in Nghe An, Nam Dinh, An Giang, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang and DongNai provinces.

Inthe city, some localities have ignored the need to inspect, monitor and takepreventive measures against the bird flu threat, according the HCM CityPeople’s Committee.

Thereare about 160 sites in the city’s 15 districts where live poultry is illegallytraded, and not closely controlled. District authorities and other agencieshave been ordered to report by March 2 on what they have done to deal withtrading in live poultry in their respective localities.

Thecity’s Department of Animal Health has been asked to take samples and evaluatethe spread of bird flu in houses with birds’ nests, bird clubs, amusement parksand farms.

Inthe Mekong Delta province of An Giang, two cases of A/H5N1 have been recorded.

About800 ducks were killed in Thoai Son district’s Phu My Dong commune. In Phu Tan district’sTan Trung commune, about 80 infected chickens were killed.

Theprovince has provided over 642,000 vaccine doses for poultry and sprayedchemicals in the infected areas and their vicinity.

TranTien Hiep, head of the province’s animal health department, said they havepetitioned Department of Finance provide an additional two million vaccinedoses.

Preventive methods

TheDepartment of Animal Health has warned that there is a high risk of the spreadof bird flu strains hitherto not seen in the country such as A/H7N9, A/H5N2 andA/H5N8 via border crossing.

Thedepartment says illegal poultry sales and transportation via border crossing isnot tightly controlled in provinces sharing a border with China, and this posesa high risk of bird flu viruses entering Vietnam.

“Thelocalities should be active in prevention and controlling the threat of birdflu outbreaks, strengthen controls, strictly tackle illegal poultry imports,and closely monitor the situation to ensure timely action against outbreaks.”

Thedepartment established 8 rapid response teams last week as the threat of anA/H7N9 bird flu outbreak increased.

On February 26, the Agriculture Ministry held aseminar on preventive measures to be taken against the spread of the A/H7N9virus via the border in the northern province of Lang Son.-VNA