Vietnam - Locally-made bird flu shot to be used by early 2007
Published:September 15, 2006
Source :VNS
Viet Nam is expected to use a domestically-produced bird flu vaccine for poultry by early next year, according to director of the National Animal Health Institute Truong Van Dung.
Currently, Viet Nam imports its stocks of bird flu vaccine from China.
In a meeting held by the National Steering Committee for Bird Flu Prevention and Control on Tuesday, Dung said that after successful testing of the locally-produced vaccine on geese and chickens, the institute had begun defining the permitted volume for each dose.
It had also begun to set out other standards for the vaccine including guidelines for safe dosage and procedures for the production process.
According to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Animal Health Department, 22 provinces and cities have carried out the second vaccination programme this year, with about 13 million doses administered.
Supervision work that followed the first vaccination programme has been carried out in various localities, and to date, has found no cases that tested positive to bird flu.
The ministry has focused on guiding localities to implement hygiene and sterilisation measures in poultry breeding environments. This has involved close co-ordination between police, animal health and market-watch teams on the transportation, trade and slaughter of poultry in urban areas.
The ministry’s plan for educating the public on the prevention and control of the bird flu and foot and mouth disease epidemics has been nearly fulfilled. Once it has been completed, the ministry is expected to receive US$2.5 million from the Japanese Government through the UNDP and UNICEF to implement the plan.
Last week, it was reported that market watch teams in several cities and provinces seized and destroyed hundreds of buffalo, cows and tens of thousands of eggs that did not have quarantine stamps.
In HCM City, the municipal steering committee for bird flu prevention and control in humans and poultry has proposed districts that need to strengthen work on investigating and strictly punishing illegal poultry breeding and trading units, especially at markets.
Last week, 117 illegal poultry breeding and trading units were discovered and penalised.
