Vietnam is speeding up vaccination among fowls against bird flu virus, in a move to curb the disease' s spread and prevent potential outbreaks in humans, the country's top veterinary official told Xinhua in an interview on Monday.

"In the past, bird flu happened first and mostly in the southern region. Therefore, we've prioritized vaccinating fowls in the south. Now, 15 cities and provinces, mainly northern localities, are hit by the disease" said Bui Quang Anh, director of the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

"Fowls that have received full and right vaccination haven't fallen ill... I believe that the serious poultry vaccination and the synchronous implementation of other measures will help us achieve good results as Hong Kong did in the past," he said.

He said Vietnam vaccinates fowls according to recommendations of relevant international organizations and experiences of such countries and regions as Chinese Hong Kong, China and Indonesia.

Vietnam has so far vaccinated 80-90 million fowls nationwide, many of them have already been given the second dose, Anh said, adding that it will have vaccinated 170 million poultry in the coming time.

The country has set aside state moneys of 60 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (nearly US$3.8 million) for import vaccines, mainly from China, Anh said, noting that it has purchased 340 million doses of bird flu vaccines from China, and 6 million doses from the Netherlands and France each.

"We'll buy additional 500 million doses from China," the official said.

To be more active in vaccinating fowls, Vietnam will produce vaccines. "We've proposed the Chinese side transfer vaccine production technology to us, and they've agreed to look into the issue," he said.

Two local enterprises are expected to manufacture bird flu vaccines according to a technology developed by Vietnam's Biotechnology Institute with foreign help, he said.

Vietnam wants to quickly produce vaccines, because "vaccination helps limit the amount of bird flu virus, including the strain H5N1, being discharged into the environment, and limit the disease 's spread from poultry to people," Anh stated.

With stronger commitments of the Vietnamese government, the serious adoption of anti-bird flu measures, and the enhanced public awareness of bird flu, Vietnam can stop the disease's spread in late November or early December, the official said.

"However, the risk of a large bird flu outbreak in humans is very high. It's unpredictable because it depends on the mutation of H5N1 (changes allows the virus to jump from persons to persons), " he stated.

"If we control outbreaks in fowls well, we can deal with outbreaks in humans better," he said.

He said Vietnam is taking stronger measures to curb the disease's spread and prevent potential outbreaks, including strengthening anti-bird flu activities at grassroots levels, culling poultry, assisting raisers in changing occupations, and calling for greater international assistance.

"On Nov. 7, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued an anti-bird flu guideline. Accordingly, the head of a hamlet is responsible for timely reporting any outbreaks in his or her hamlet to higher level... Now, we, the Department of Animal Health, usually know bird flu outbreaks in localities within the day of the disease's occurrence," Anh said.

Since Oct. 1, Vietnam has detected bird flu outbreaks in 17 cities and provinces nationwide. Because Hanoi and southern Bac Lieu province have met criteria for announcing an end to the outbreaks (detecting no new outbreaks in their territory for at least three weeks), the current number of affected localities is 15.

"Localities nationwide have so far culled some 900,000 fowls. The fowls were not only infected ones but also healthy ones, because Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang (a city in the central region) have decided to stop raising poultry in their inner areas this month," Anh said.

Previous outbreaks starting in December 2003 killed and led to the forced culling of some 46.6 million fowls in Vietnam, causing losses of 3.5 trillion VND (221.5 million dollars), according to the agriculture ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2005)