Something foul with bird flu
program By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
HO CHI MINH CITY - Vietnam's ambitious
plan to vaccinate all its poultry before seasonal
high demand for chicken begins early next year has
suffered a setback because of failed pilot
programs. "The poultry inoculation program
against bird flu is slipping behind," said Hoang
Van Nam, a director in the veterinary department
of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development (MARD). "The trial programs, scheduled
to end within a month, have failed. We will review
them before expanding the vaccination to other
localities."
This comes as the World
Health Organization (WHO) this week repeated its
warning that bird flu had spread from farm poultry
to migratory birds. According to news reports WHO,
which warns this could spark a pandemic, says
at-risk Asian countries must
improve detection to ensure an
early warning to others. Also the countries should
mobilize international stockpiles of antiviral
drugs and speed up vaccine-manufacturing capacity.
In June, Vietnamese officials launched two
pilot vaccination programs in Tien Giang province
in the south and Nam Dinh in the north. Lessons
drawn from the trials were supposed to help
officials extend the vaccinations on a nationwide
scale.
In Tien Giang, rains and floods
slowed down the pilot program and only 38 out of
127 communes had their flocks vaccinated. In Nam
Dinh, the results were better with 3.1 million
birds out of 4.3 million having been vaccinated.
Local newspapers have, however, pointed
out that the sheer number of fowl to be vaccinated
was far larger than expected and the supply of
vaccines slow.
Health officials planned to
vaccinate some 3 million birds, but preliminary
checks showed the actual population of domestic
birds at about 6 million. The country had only set
aside about US$30 million for the nationwide
campaign, and many experts think the funding was
not enough.
"No fear of vaccine shortage,"
assured Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, director of the Tien
Giang veterinary center. "They will be sent
shortly." But Nga admitted to a problem with range
fowl. "We could not take into account all the
ducks raised in the open fields."
In the
Mekong delta, farmers raise ducks in the open,
driving them from place to place to feed including
into harvested rice fields to feed on fallen
grain. Fattened, the ducks are taken to markets in
big cities such as Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City.
Health officials recently warned that if
farmers do not strictly follow instructions to
prevent the spread of bird flu there could be a
serious risk to human life.
More than 140
million chickens have already been culled in
Thailand, Indonesia, China and Vietnam in a bid to
halt the disease. But experts say it is now
endemic in China and Vietnam where poultry is
raised in households, increasing chances of human
contact with infected birds. Illegal
slaughterhouses further heighten risks.
In
Tien Giang and Nam Dinh, veterinarians have been
teaching farmers how to administer the vaccine to
chickens, ducks and quail. They have also asked
farmers to raise fowls in the open rather than in
homes and ensure that their birds are vaccinated.
A parallel "campaign of information and
explanation" has also been launched asking people
to stop eating the vaccinated chickens for 30
days.
"We will make sure that every duck
and chicken is vaccinated," said Pham Minh Dao,
head of Nam Dinh's animal health department.
However, Nga from Tien Giang was not so
certain, saying "Even for the flocks of ducks that
have been vaccinated, control was difficult
because of their mobility."
Officials at
Tien Giang have asked farmers not to move flocks
during the vaccination program. "It is only after
the second shot of vaccine that they are given a
vaccination certificate," Nga said. They then can
be legally transported to slaughterhouses and
markets.
A recent report in the Thanh Nien
newspaper published in Ho Chi Minh City alleged
that vaccinations were seen as little more than
formality and that the certificates only had
symbolic value.
Two Thanh Nien reporters -
Duc Trung and Hoai Nam - followed the transaction
of fowl from the outskirts to slaughterhouses and
markets in Ho Chi Minh for two weeks. They
reported that veterinarians posted at the gates
entering the city did not carry out any control
measures and that vaccination documents could be
obtained easily.
"We saw dozens of trucks
carrying ducks and chickens passing the Binh Chanh
station," their report said. "The veterinarian on
duty glanced at the [vaccination] documents and
allowed the trucks to move on without even a
glance."
Posing as chicken traders, the
reporters easily bought vaccination certificates
at slaughterhouses. "A vaccination certificate
costs just 3,000 VN dong [about 5 US cents], and
you could buy as many as you like," they reported.
"Veterinarians on duty just sell the
certificates, paying no care to the number of
chickens [to be sold as safe items]." At the Manh
Thang slaughterhouse vaccination certificates were
reportedly displayed in baskets for chicken
traders to buy freely.
"With vaccination
control so loosely implemented, residents in Ho
Chi Minh City could easily end up consuming birds
infected with the H5N1 virus," the report in the
Thanh Nien newspaper concluded.
This is
precisely what health officials fear most for
their vaccination program - the lack of public
awareness of the real dangers from bird flu.
"We have regulations and penalties for
buyers and sellers [of unvaccinated chicken and
duck]; but in reality if you ask me how many
people have infringed the regulations I cannot
answer," Nga told IPS.
Last week, Dao Minh
Tam, deputy director of Hanoi's agriculture and
rural development service, warned of another bird
flu threat saying 50% of water fowl transported
into the city and 10% of those being raised there
have tested positive for bird flu.
Tam
urged authorities to take strict measures to check
avian flu in Hanoi, adding that as much 70% of the
capital city's poultry was brought in from
outside.
On August 17, three rare palm
civets raised in Cuc Phuong national park in the
northern province of Ninh Binh died of the bird
flu virus; and on August 30, a 58-year-old man
from Soc Son district died in a Hanoi hospital of
H5N1 virus after eating duck purchased in the
market.
Another problem was that
vaccinations so far had been limited to ducks and
chickens. Quail, doves and geese had not been
vaccinated because the recent imported vaccines
are not suitable for them.
These
developments threaten the schedule that officials
have set up for the national vaccination campaign.
WHO has supported the campaign as an effort "to
reduce the risks to humans by reducing the
intensity of exposure to the virus".
MARD
initially planned to vaccinate poultry in the
remaining 12 Mekong delta provinces, including Ho
Chi Minh City, and two northern provinces before
September 10. Other high-risk provinces will start
the campaign by October.
But under the
present critical situation, Deputy Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung wants to start the campaign in
earnest so that it could be completed by November
15 so poultry could be safely put on sale for the
Lunar New Year Festival in early 2006.
"If
the vaccination is delayed beyond November 15, it
will be very dangerous because winter is the
season of flu," MARD Minister Cao Duc Phat added.
