Bird flu outbreak in Vietnam

Thousands of poultry died of bird flu in the past two weeks in southern Vietnam, the government said today, in the country’s first reported outbreak in a year.

Tests showed that some 5,500 one-month-old ducks and 500 chickens died of the H5N1 bird flu strain in the southern Mekong Delta provinces of Ca Mau and Bac Lieu, said Hoang Van Nam, deputy director of the Department of Animal Health.