All the dead stocks were found to have been vaccinated.

The Veterinary Department added that most recent bird flu outbreaks since early May happened to water fowls in northern provinces which have just finished winter-spring rice harvests. It blamed the disaster on farmers’ habits to free the birds into harvested rice fields for feed.

In the period under review, bird flu outbreaks were discovered in 16 provinces, mostly in the Red River Delta, said the Veterinary Department.

The Veterinary Department has sent out taskforces to Red River Delta provinces to check bird flu outbreaks as well as its spread to human beings.

One of the team’s tasks is to instruct local colleagues to raise public awareness against the traditional way of killing and eating water fowls, the biggest threat of the pandemic, in an effort to curb the transmission of H5N1 virus to people.