The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on February 3 sent an urgent notice to the chairmen of the People’s Committees of centrally-run cities and provinces, calling for drastic and concerted measures against avian flu epidemics.

Localities were asked to take samples to offer timely warnings and effectively use vaccines against the flu.

Chairs of the municipal and provincial People’s Committees must direct units of the National Steering Committee against Smuggling, Trade Frauds and Counterfeits to promptly discover and strictly deal with illegal transportation of animals and their products, especially fowls from abroad.

The Department of Animal Health was assigned to hold trips to localities to inspect the implementation of the measures, and actively work with international organisations to share experience in the effort.

According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, avian flu outbreak has hit 11 countries and territories since January.

Among nearly 4,000 samples taken from over 19,830 heads of poultry in 26 Vietnam’s cities and provinces, 37.72 percent are tested positive to avian flu, 1.19 percent of them positive to A/H5N1 and 1.82 percent positive to A/H5N6 viruses