Veterinarians cull H5N1-infected chickens in Long An Province’s Cần Đước District. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Bình

LONG AN — The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Long An is taking measures to prevent the spread of H5N1 in Tân Trụ District and African swine fever in Cần Đước District.

Đinh Thị Phương Khanh, deputy director of the province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said on Tuesday (November 10) that Tân Trụ District has been hit by bird flu and Cần Đước by African swine fever.

On Tuesday the Cần Đước Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Tân Lân Commune People’s Committee culled 12,000 infected chickens in a farm in Bà Thoại Hamlet.

This was the second outbreak this month.

The chickens were about to be sold when many of them started dying suddenly, and tests showed they had H5N1.

On Tuesday the Tân Trụ People’s Committee announced African swine fever outbreaks in Tân Trụ Town.

On October 24 Nguyễn Văn Danh of the town’s Tân Bình Commune reported to veterinarians about the unusual death of one of his pigs, and a day later another died. Tests found that one of them had swine fever.

Local authorities culled Danh’s six remaining pigs on October 26.

On November 4 Cao Thị Lương of Tân Bình Commune found some of her pigs had been infected, and 17 of her 35 animals have been destroyed and the rest are being monitored.

Official are sterilising pig farms, pork selling places and slaughterhouses, and burying culled pigs in an effort to contain the disease. — VNS