HANOI, Oct. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Vietnam has just culled 1,500 alive ducks in the southern province of Tien Giang after detecting 500 dead fowls in the flock on Sunday.

    Testing for bird flu viruses in the affected ducks is underway, but the result has yet to come out, according to local newspaper Youth on Wednesday.

    To prevent bird flu spread, Tien Giang has intensified the quarantine of imported fowls, and asked local raisers not to recover flocks which have been hit by the disease.

    The province, one of four southern localities suffering reoccurrence of bird flu, detected some 3,000 chickens infected with the disease early this month.

    Between Sept. 28 and Oct. 19, bird flu 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, according to the Department of Animal Health.

    In late March, 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.