US agency helps Vietnam better avian flu readiness
Vietnam will improve its readiness to prevent and cope with avian influenza under a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development.
A US$1.7 million project to be implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) will continue to strengthen the control of H5N1 outbreaks and other infectious diseases including the emerging H7N9 risk, according to FAO’s press release on June 19.
The funding will help the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department of Animal Health and Livestock Production to develop and apply policies and legislation to improve bird flu and other animal disease control nationwide.
It will also help enhance overall animal health systems through support to laboratory staff, improve surveillance and diagnostic quality as well as monitoring vaccines and evolving viruses to inform government responses.
Scotte Newman, FAO senior technical coordinator at the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Disease (ECTAD) in Hanoi, pledges to help the Vietnamese Government with everything necessary to be well prepared.