Foot-and-mouth disease, bird flu and blue-ear syndrome are becoming more pervasive nationwide, says director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development\'s Animal Health Department Hoang Van Nam.

An animal health worker vaccinates a cow against foot-and-mouth disease in Central Highland Kon Tum Province.

The country did not have enough vaccines to properly combat poultry and cattle diseases and local authorities intentionally have not reported what was actually happening to the public despite the outbreak of the diseases, Nam said.

Simultaneous outbreaks of poultry and cattle related diseases in many countries had led to an increase in price and decrease in supply of vaccines, he said.

Official statistics from the department show that more than 15,000 chickens with the A/H5N1 virus have been culled in eight provinces since the middle of February.

As many as 66,000 cattle contracted foot-and-mouth disease in 25 provinces within one month.

Central Ha Tinh Province has reported that livestock in the locality had been found with blue-ear pig disease.

"The viruses that cause foot-and-mouth disease are mutating this year. The virus is able to spread faster not only in cows and buffaloes but also in pigs," he said.

The death rate for pigs that contract the foot-and-mouth disease is 75 percent whereas it is five per cent with cows and buffaloes.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ordered the Animal Health Department to quickly find suitable vaccines that could be used to combat the spread of the virus.

"It is not necessary to slaughter all the cattle infected with foot-and-mouth disease; we can eat their meat if it is cooked properly," said agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat.

"We need to instruct people how to hygienically slaughter cattle infected with foot-and-mouth disease," he said.

The department is also required to publish material that will teach people how to prevent the disease from spreading.

In a related move, the Animal Health Department along with United Nations agencies yesterday launched a campaign to "improve public awareness about consuming quarantined poultry" in Hanoi.

The campaign aims to call upon all restaurants nationwide, especially in Hanoi, to use quarantined poultry from clear origins.

As estimated, 60-70 percent of poultry is quarantined before being consumed in Hanoi.