Under a decision issued yesterday by the provincial People’s Committee, the chairpersons of Dien Ban and Dai Loc Districts must take urgent measures to assist their respective communes of Dien Phuong and Dai Hung to control disease outbreaks.
Declarations of the epidemic must be disseminated to the public and all trade, slaughtering, and consumption of poultry strictly banned.
In addition, transport of poultry into and out of the communes has been suspended.
Local veterinary agencies must examine the affected areas and spray antiseptics to prevent the spread of the virus.
All the poultry found to have contracted the lethal virus must be destroyed in accordance with the instructions of competent agencies.
Currently, the virus has also appeared in three other districts including Hiep Duc, Nui Thanh and Duy Xuyen.
Before Quang Nam, several other provinces and cities had made their epidemic declaration, including Kien Giang, Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh and Thai Nguyen.
Along with bird flu, foot and mouth disease has been discovered in Quang Nam’s Dien Ban, Que Son and Hiep Duc districts, authorities reported.
According to the National Steering Board for Avian Influenza Prevention and Control, the H5N1 bird flu has spread to 12 provinces and cities nationwide, including Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Ha Nam, Ha Tinh, Quang Nam, Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Hai Phong, Thai Nguyen, Bac Giang, Soc Trang and Kien Giang.
The disease has affected three people, two of whom died in southern Kien Giang and Soc Trang provinces while the other, 22-year-old Truong Phu Son of Binh Duong province, is being treated in HCMC Tropical Disease Hospital.
Meanwhile, more than 52,000 heads of poultry that contracted the virus have been culled nationwide.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has said an action plan to identify the different strains of the bird-flu virus in each locality would be completed by the end of this month.
After the plan is completed, appropriate vaccines for each strain will be imported and sent to the districts that need them.
However, until then, only a single type of vaccine, H5N1 Re 5, which has been used in Vietnam for the past several years, will be used.
