About 4,000 fowls have either died or been killed in Vietnam´s three southern localities in recent weeks, many of them found to have contracted the virus strain of H5, local newspaper Youth reported Tuesday.

    Over 200 chickens raised by Tao Van Loi in Binh Thuy district in Can Tho city died on Dec. 12. The local veterinary force culledhis 3,685 chickens and 4,541 eggs worth some 200 Vietnamese dong (12,700 US dollars) after finding that samples from the dead fowls were tested positive to H5.

    In mid-December, the force also killed 24 chickens raised by two other farmers in the same district, since samples were tested positive to the virus strain. Head of the district´s veterinary station Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet said poultry in Can Tho could have been stricken by the bird flu virus of H5N1.

    In the two provinces of Hau Giang and An Giang, hundreds of chickens and ducks have suddenly died since mid-December. Local veterinarian forces are trying to identify the cause.

    Some 200 out of 540 chickens in Hau Giang´s Long My rural district died last week. Other healthy fowls in the flock have already been culled.

    Now, the three localities are taking urgent preventive measures,mainly tightening management over poultry flocks, slaughterhouses and markets, and isolating areas having dead fowls. Can Tho´s veterinary force sprays antiseptics, and bans the transport of poultry in the areas within a radius of one kilometers.

    Denmark on Monday offered 12 southern localities equipment for bird flu prevention worth some 150,000 dollars. The equipment includes sprayers, slaughtering tools and protective clothes.

    Vietnam remains highly alert to potential new outbreaks of birdflu this winter, because cold weather favors the spread of the disease. Free raising of poultry, especially ducks in fields, and rampant transport and sales of fowls before the Lunar New Year, which falls on early February, are also contributing factors to the high risk of bird flu relapse.

    The country is intensifying anti-bird flu activities such as frequently disinfecting farms, monitoring the transport and importof fowls and their eggs via border gates, and raising public awareness of the disease nationwide, especially in the southern Mekong Delta. It plans to vaccinate poultry if bird flu resurgence at large-scale is reported.

    In late March 2004, Vietnam declared an end to the bird flu that had killed 17 percent of its poultry population and claimed 16 human lives during the previous outbreak starting in December 2003. A total of 43.2 million fowls nationwide either died or wereculled, causing direct losses of 1.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (82.8 million dollars) to the local poultry industry.