VIETNAM: Vietnam banned the sale of poultry in its largest city, Ho Chi Minh, yesterday, stepping up the battle against a fatal fast-spreading bird flu.South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have also reported outbreaks of bird flu, but Vietnam has been the hardest hit, with 18 suspected cases of human influenza linked to bird flu, though only three of these have been confirmed as avian flu.
Of the 18, a dozen people, most of them children, have died.
Two UN agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), had recommended the ban on the sale of poultry in the southern city, the FAO's Vietnam representative, Mr Anton Rychener, said.
He said the ban was necessary because some farmers were balking at culling their flocks.
Vietnam accepted the recommendation, which comes just days before its biggest festival, Tet, or the Lunar New Year, during which chicken is cooked as an offering to ancestors and eaten.
Japan appeared no nearer to tracing the source of its first outbreak of bird flu in nearly 80 years, but experts said there was slim likelihood migratory birds had brought in the disease.
Thailand, one of the world's biggest chicken producers, says it has no bird flu, but will start an inspection of every poultry farm in the country next week to halt the spread of cholera among chickens.
Nearly 900,000 chickens have died in Thailand since November 21st, of which 29,746 were confirmed to have been killed by cholera and respiratory problems, with the rest culled because they showed symptoms of the disease, an agriculture official said.
Singapore said it was banning the import of live chickens from any country affected by bird flu.
WHO expert Mr Hiroshi Oshitani said on Thursday the most urgent task for Vietnam was to stop the virus from infecting humans.
Vietnam's flu cases have occurred in the north, while the bird flu has struck the south. It is unclear how the people were infected.
The sale ban, imposed late on Thursday, also allows for the seizure of chickens and ducks for destruction, the official Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said. Authorities would pay 15,000 dong (96 US cents) for each seized chicken or duck.
Europe, which has been struck by bird flu in the Netherlands and Italy in the past, offered Vietnam help.
EU Health Commissioner Mr David Bryne, on a visit to discuss food safety, told Vietnamese officials that experts from the EU were "on standby" if requested. He told a news briefing he believed Vietnam had dealt with the crisis in a "rapid and transparent" manner. - (Reuters)