FAO Continues to Assist Vietnam in Detecting Deadly H7N9 Bird Flu

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will continue to cooperate with Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in inspecting local markets to detect the deadly H7N9 bird flu, said an official from the world agency. Vietnamese need to stay away from poultry markets to avoid being infected with the virus although authorities found no evidence of its presence in Vietnam, said Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, a FAO’s representative in the Southeast Asian nation. Vietnam is still under threat of the H7N9 bird flu, which has infected 132 peoples with 38 deaths in the neighboring China, Ms. Thuy noted. It is so dangerous that some infected poultry have no disease symptoms, and the virus can adapt to infect mammals, she added. There is currently no vaccine to deal with the H7N9 virus, she noted. (Nong Nghiep Viet Nam – Vietnam Agriculture July 12 p2)