An Giang deals seriously with violations

Although there have been no new outbreaks of bird flu in An Giang, provincial authorities disciplined the chairmen of six communal people’s committees in the three districts of Phu Tan, Cho Moi and Tri Ton. The reason for the punishment is that they did not strictly follow orders to deal with violations of bird flu prevention work.

An Giang was the first Mekong Detal province to discipline six communal people’s committee chairmen despite the fact that no new bird flu outbreaks have been reported in the province so far.

Meanwhile, the province awarded a number of officials and people who have been active in preventing the recurrence of the epidemic. An Giang provided financial assistance to shock forces (VND20,000 each) and local veterinary coordinators (VND50,000 each). The province also presented VND200,000 to providers of correct information about the epidemic situation.

An Giang is currently intensifying measures to prevent new outbreaks of bird flu, while neighbouring provinces like Can Tho and Kien Giang are coping with the epidemic. According to deputy head of the An Giang provincial steering board for bird flu control, Nguyen Van Phuong, it is essential to deal with all violations. Chairmen of districts’ people committees were asked to impose discipline on violators in communes.

Why has Bac Lieu province failed to keep bird flu under control?

At present, the epidemic has been reported in 27 communes in Bac Lieu’s six districts with nearly 30,000 poultry culled. The question is why bird flu has spread seriously in the province.

Bac Lieu set up steering boards for bird flu control with the participation of agencies at all levels. However, these steering boards did not operate well at a communal level. Local people lacked information about the bird flu situation and how to prevent the epidemic. Furthermore, communal officers who neglected their duties did not receive proper punishment. In addition to shortcomings in management and epidemic prevention work, Bac Lieu province did not pay due attention to vaccination work.

Tien Giang, Dong Thap better carry out sterilisation and vaccination

More than 3 million poultry and livestock of over 115,000 households in all 159 communes and towns in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang have been sterilized in the first phase. The province is currently carrying out the second phase of sterilization. A vaccination campaign has achieved significant results. It kept four quarantine checkpoints on important roads. Inspection teams destroyed thousands of poultry and eggs of unknown origin.

The Central Veterinary Department will provide 280,000 doses of vaccine for more than 150,000 ducks in Tien Giang province. Head of the provincial Veterinary Department Nguyen Viet Nga said it is difficult to vaccinate ducks as most of them are not raised in a concentrated area.

The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap completed the first phase of the vaccination campaign on more than 1.3 million ducks (reaching more than 76 percent of the total stock) and over 405,000 chickens ( accounting for 61 percent of the total stock).

The province is currently lacking around 2.5 million doses of vaccine. According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, although no bird flu outbreak has occurred in recent days, the disease is likely to recur in the province as ducks blood samples in Thanh Binh, Lap Vo, and Thap Muoi districts and Sa Dec Town tested positive for H5N1. In addition, trading and slaughtering live poultry are popular. Localities also encounter difficulties in controlling the transportation of poultry through borders.