Vietnam's two biggest cities are expected to purge all live poultry by next week to try to halt the spread of bird flu prior to the winter months, when the virus has historically been most destructive, officials said yesterday.

The government in southern Ho Chi Minh City is buying poultry from commercial farms, slaughtering it and freezing the meat to be sold at grocery stores, said Huynh Hu Loi, director of the city's animal health department. He said about 15,000 birds remain, and officials are expected to slaughter those by Saturday.

Backyard farmers in urban and rural districts also have been ordered to either sell or slaughter all poultry by Monday to receive 15,000 dong (US$1) apiece, or about half the current market value from the government. Any birds found after that, will be killed without compensation, Loi said.

Four checkpoints have been added at the city's main entrances, along with units randomly inspecting vehicles to help prevent smuggled birds from entering or leaving the city, he said.

"We hope that clearing out alive poultry in the city will help minimize the chances of people getting sick from bird flu," Loi said. "A pandemic can happen anytime. We are doing all we can."

In the capital, Hanoi, animal officials are combing the city's nine urban districts and slaughtering all poultry found, said Nguyen Van Phuc, deputy director of the city's animal health department. The inspections are expected to be completed by the end of the week, and the government is paying the same compensation.

No commercial farms exist inside the city limits, but officials are targeting all backyard farms.

In the rural outskirts, farmers are not required to slaughter their flocks, but their farms will be shut down if they do not meet animal health hygiene standards, Phuc said. Any unvaccinated poultry or birds of unclear origin will also be killed, he added.

Vietnam is struggling to keep the H5N1 bird flu virus from spreading prior to the winter months when the disease has previously killed the most poultry and people. The virus has killed at least 64 people in Southeast Asia since 2003, the bulk of those in Vietnam. Millions of birds have died or been slaughtered as the virus spreads from Asia to Europe.

International health experts have warned that the bird flu virus, which is now hard for people to catch, could mutate into a form easily spread among humans. They fear it could ignite a global pandemic that kills millions worldwide. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.

International co-operation

Meanwhile, Pacific Rim trade and foreign ministers have agreed to co-operate in boosting preparedness against bird flu and fighting the virus, a senior South Korean official said yesterday.
 
The agreement outlining ways to reduce risks of the virus will be adopted later this week after review by leaders of the 21 member economies of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, said Kim Jong-hoon, South Korea's ambassador to the group.

Proposals in the agreement "primarily call on each member economy to recognize and develop capability" to deal with the danger posed by bird flu, Kim said. Other measures are information-sharing among countries and co-operation on developing a vaccine and medications against a possible bird flu-spawned pandemic.

(China Daily November 16, 2005)