HANOI, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has unveiled a national plan on bird flu prevention and control for the 2019-2025 period, Vietnam News Agency reported on Thursday.
The plan seeks to prevent and control bird flu outbreaks and help form disease-free poultry farming zones and chains, thus minimizing the disease's impact on Vietnam's public health, food safety, and trading activities.
Authorized forces are requested to control outbreaks through early detection and a swift dealing with infected hotbeds to prevent them from spreading. The plan also tasks them with preventing new and dangerous flu strains from entering or spreading in Vietnam, while vaccinating at least 80 percent of poultry.
Vietnam's northern Quang Ninh province has recently detected three outbreaks of H5N6 bird flu outbreaks which have affected thousands of fowls, the provincial animal health bureau said last month.
Meanwhile, an H5N1 bird flu outbreak has happened in southern Long An province, hitting fowls in a commune, the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said in January.
In Vietnam, bird flu virus H5N1 in poultry was reported for the first time in late 2003. More than 45 million poultry were culled between 2003 and 2006. Since then, hundreds of thousands of fowls have been killed each year.
In the 2004-2014 period, 127 people in Vietnam were infected with H5N1, including 64 fatalities, according to its Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.