Vietnam to import bird flu vaccines from Italy

Vietnam will, sometime this month, import six million doses of bird flu vaccines to be used among white-winged ducks, according to local newspaper Labor on Wednesday.

Vietnam, which has already vaccinated chickens and ducks nationwide, has just found that vaccines by Italian firm Merial is suitable for vaccinating its white-winged duck population of some eight million, the paper quoted the Department of Animal Health under the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as saying.

The vaccination of white-winged ducks will progress slowly because they are raised in a scattered way among farming households.

According to the department's director Bui Quang Anh, bird flu is likely to return Vietnam in October when weather conditions favor the development of bird flu viruses.

Over 80 percent of white-winged ducks being vaccinated against bird flu virus strain H5N9 in the trial vaccination have developed immunity ability, according to the country's Veterinary Institute.

Bird flu outbreaks, starting in Vietnam in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls. The last outbreak of bird flu among poultry in the country was in December 2005, according to the agriculture ministry.

Source: Xinhua