HCM CITY (VNS)— Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat has instructed relevant authorities to strengthen oversight to prevent the spread of bird flu from across borders.
In an urgent dispatch, Phat said Chinese health authorities have confirmed that the H7N9 strain of the disease killed 45 people in that country.
According to Cambodian health authorities, two more people recently contracted H5N1 bird flu, raising the total number of infected people this year to 16, and 11 of them have died.
Outbreaks have occurred in several provinces along the border with Viet Nam, he said.
Besides, smuggling of poultry and poultry products into the country through borders is on the increase, causing a high risk of the disease spreading.
Under the circumstances, the ministry has ordered relevant agencies to take drastic measures to prevent the spread of the disease.
It has also urged local authorities to ban the slaughter, transport, and distribution of smuggled poultry products, and review and organise poultry vaccination, especially in high-risk provinces like those along borders and with a lot of poultry farming.
The ministry said more than 26,000 quails with bird flu were recently destroyed in Tien Giang Province near HCM City.
The Department of Animal Health has supplied one million doses of bird flu vaccine to the province to help contain the disease. — VNS
Đăng ký: VietNam News