Vietnam on Friday confirmed its first outbreak of H5N8 bird flu at a chicken farm in the northern province of Quang Ninh.
Samples from the farm tested positive for the virus, the agriculture ministry said in a news release. Last month, around 200 chickens had been found dead at the farm.
The authorities had taken measures to prevent the disease from spreading, the release said, but did not give any details. Measures usually mean mass killing all animals at an infected farm.
“H5N8 not only kills poultry but also infects humans,” the head of the province’s animal health department, Tran Xuan Dong, said.
H5N8 outbreaks have been reported at farms in Britain, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Russia, according to the WHO.
Governments are mass killing animals whenever bird flu outbreaks are detected as a solution.
Animal rights organizations have long advised reconsidering the whole farm industry to prevent animal diseases from jumping to humans.
The Animal Reader is an animal news website. Become a Friend of The Animal Reader and support animal journalism.