A number of cities and provinces in Vietnam have basically contained bird flu, and actively prepared for recovering their poultry population, the country's Central Veterinarian Department announced on Saturday.

Most of localities in the central region and the southeastern region have basically contained the disease because they have reported no new affected areas, and no poultry being infected or culled for several days.

Many northern provinces, including Yen Bai, Son La, Quang Ninh,Lai Chau and Cao Bang have also detected no new affected areas for around one week, said the department.

Between Friday afternoon and Saturday noon, Vietnam had no new districts being hit by bird flu, but the country still slaughtered nearly 516,000 poultry.

By Saturday afternoon, 57 localities nationwide were stricken by bird flu, which killed and led to forced culling of over 37 million fowls or 14.5 percent of the country's poultry population. Ho Chi Minh City alone culled more than 5 million fowls.

To recover its poultry industry in the post-epidemic era, Vietnam is further protecting its breeder fowls being raised in 12national breeding centers. It is taking three protective measures.

The measures include isolating breeding centers by not allowing residents' fowls to appear around the centers within a radius of 500 meters, disinfecting people and tools frequently, and establishing standby centers in safer locations.

The government also plans to financially assist farmers because it takes time and money to recover poultry population. Fowls are not raised again until the bird flu outbreak is over for three months.

Last year, Vietnam had 254 million fowls, including 185 million chickens. They turned out 372,700 tons of meat, and 4.79 billion eggs.

(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2004)