Vietnamese authorities have found the H5N1
bird flu virus in poultry illegally imported from China, a government official
said Tuesday, dpa reported.
"We found H5N1 in illegally imported poultry through our
regular supervisions," said Hoang Van Nam, deputy director of the Vietnam's Department of Animal Health.
Nam said the animal health department in Lang Son province
had tested 16 samples of illegally imported chicken seized by police at the
Chinese border. Eight tested positive for the H5N1 virus.
His department asked Lang Son's animal health officials to
strengthen their inspections of imported poultry, Nam said.
Five people in Vietnam died from avian influenza in early
2008, but no cases have been reported since March.
On January 2, an 8-year-old child in Thanh Hoa province was
admitted to hospital and confirmed by health officials as Vietnam's first human case of the H5N1 virus in 2009.
In Vietnam, 107 people have become infected with the avian
flu since it first appeared in the country in late 2003, 52 of them died, the
second-highest toll after Indonesia.
H5N1 mainly affects poultry and wild birds, but can infect
humans who have close contact with sick fowl. Scientists fear that if it
spreads unchecked, the disease could mutate into a form which could be
transmitted between humans, leading to a worldwide pandemic that could kill
millions.
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