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Vietnam to
purge cities of poultry |
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TRAN PHU, Thurs. --- Stepping into a cramped coop, Pham Tuyet Anh grabbed a squawking chicken with a gloved hand and stuffed it inside a burlap bag soon filled with 15 other chickens. Dragging the bag down a dirt street to a collection point, Anh threw it beside a pile of other squirming sacks. A veterinary officer for Tran Phu commune on the outskirts of the capital, Anh is on the frontline of Vietnam’s ambitious plan to purge the country’s two biggest cities --- Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi --- of all live poultry by next week to slow the spread of bird flu before winter, when the virus has typically been deadliest. “Everyone is co-operating”, said Anh, clad in a blue surgical gown, gloves, mask, and a hairnet. “They understand that the public’s health is more important”. |
Vietnam has been struggling to contain the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has killed at least 64 people in Southeast Asia since 2003, the bulk of them in Vietnam. Millions of birds have died or been slaughtered as the virus spread from Asia to Europe. International health experts have warned the bird flu virus could mutate into a form easily spread among humans, igniting a global pandemic that could kill millions. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds. Vietnam has got increasingly tough with its measures against bird flu as the world’s attention has turned to Asia, where millions of backyard farms allow poultry and people to easily mingle. In Hanoi, animal health workers have been going door to door in the city’s nine urban districts to search for live |
poultry, registering owners’ names and how many birds they have. This week, all poultry owners are required to bring their chickens, ducks and geese to an ad hoc collection point, where they will be bundled into trucks and sent off to be destroyed. The Government is paying US$1 (RM3.70) per bird --- about half the market price for a chicken and ducks and only a fraction of what geese are worth. For farmers faced with a ban on poultry sales in the city and the new directive to destroy their poultry or face an undetermined fine, there is little choice. --- AP. |
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