Specimens from 570 ducks raised by two households in Vietnam's southern Ben Tre province have been recently tested positive to bird flu virus strain H5N1, Xinhua quoted local newspaper Youth as saying today. The bird flu test has been conducted by Vietnam's 6th Regional Animal Health Center, the newspaper quoted the provincial Veterinary Bureau as reporting. The bureau has disinfected and isolated the affected areas in Ben Tre's Ba Tri district. The Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has yet to confirm the bird flu outbreak in Ben Tre. Now, only central Quang Ngai province and southern Dong Thap and Kien Giang provinces are being hit by the disease, the department said. Bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam, starting in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls in the country.
