A veterinary worker sprays disinfectant at a chicken farm in Thanh Hoá Province. Photo dansinh.vn

THANH HOÁ — The H5N6 avian flu virus has spread to five districts of Thanh Hoá Province, requiring the culling of 43,600 birds.

At present, the central province had to cull an average of 5,000-6,000 birds per day, reported online newspaper vov.vn.

The virus was first recorded on February 3 at Nguyễn Văn Ngọ’s farm in Lai Thịnh Village, Tân Khang Commune of Nông Cống District.

A day later, the disease was reported at a poultry breeding farm in Quảng Trường Commune of Quảng Xương District.

As of yesterday, the disease had spread to another 32 farms in districts of Vĩnh Lộc, Như Xuân and Thanh Hoá City.

The number of poultry infected with the virus totalled more than 4,000.

Thanh Hoá Province’s Veterinary Department said that it had co-ordinated with local authorities to quarantine and disinfect the farms and roads. Infected villages were sprayed every two days and non-infected villages every three days.

The department, so far, had supplied 8,000 litres of disinfectant and 560,000 doses of vaccines to the districts.

There is still a high risk of the virus spreading further, said Cao Bá Trịnh, head of Tân Khang Commune.

The virus infected ducks mainly through water, Trịnh said.

Seven days ago, we found dead ducks and chickens floating in the rivers, he added.  VNS