Vietnam has recently found eight chicken flocks in four southern Mekong provinces being hit by bird flu which either killed or led to the forced culling of 9,340 fowls, local media reported Thursday.

    New outbreaks affected 6,590 chickens, 750 ducks and 2,000 quails in six communes in the provinces of Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre and Soc Trang between Sept. 28 and Oct. 19, deputy director of the Department of Animal Health Pham Chung said in a conference on anti-bird flu activities in the Mekong Delta held inLong An on Wednesday.

    He said the reoccurrence of bird flu is mainly attributed to scattered poultry raising which makes it difficult for relevant agencies to manage flocks, loose inspection over transport and import of fowls of some localities, especially border provinces, and existence of bird flu viruses in fowls left from previous outbreaks.

    Other delegates to the conference, chaired by acting Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat, echoed Chung´sstatement, adding that there is a huge risk of viruses spreading from ducks to other kinds of poultry since most of samples recently taken from ducks are tested positive for the virus strainof H5.

    Although there is no clear evidence about the transmission of bird flu from ducks to chickens, some delegates expressed their deep concern about the fact that ducks freely move in fields and on canals in the delta, and that H5 virus exists for a long time in environment -- at least five days in ducks?droppings.

    "Our recent research in the northern province of Thai Binh showed that the risk of contracting bird flu is 3.6 times higher if chickens and ducks are raised together," said Le Van Tao, deputy director of the Institute for Animal Health.

    After hearing all reports, Phat instructed relevant bodies and localities to intensify border quarantine activities, especially in provinces bordering with Cambodia, establish inspection teams at hamlet level, conduct comprehensive culling of sick fowls, and promote the method of raising ducks in cages, not freely or together with chickens like currently.

    In a press briefing held last month, the department said that after having reappeared in 11 southern provinces and city since June 2004, bird flu no longer activated there, and that the reappearance of bird flu had either killed or led to the forced culling of over 44,000 poultry, mainly chickens and quails.

    In late March 2004, Vietnam declared an end to bird flu that had killed 17 percent of its poultry population, and claimed 16 human lives since its previous outbreak last December. A total of 43.2 million fowls nationwide either died or were culled, causing direct losses of 1.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (82.8 million US dollars) to the local poultry industry.