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Compared to this time last year, Vietnam is having a far easier time of it with bird flu outbreaks in 2008.
At it's height last summer, 18 provinces were reporting bird flu and by the end of July of 2007, Vietnam would have recorded its third fatality of the year.
This year, fears of the return of massive outbreaks have not materialized.
Still, a low level of activity persists, and questions remain over the prevalence of asymptomatic birds carrying the virus.
This report from Xinhua news.
Vietnam reports bird flu-hit chicken in southern province
HANOI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Specimens from dead chickens in Vietnam's southern Long An province have been tested positive to bird flu virus strain H5N1, according to local newspaper Youth on Wednesday.
Tests by Vietnam's Regional Animal Health Center No. 6 have shown that some chickens of a 3,000-fowl flock raised by a household in Can Duoc district were infected with bird flu, the newspaper quoted Duong Minh Phi, deputy head of the province's Veterinary Bureau, as saying.
Chickens in the flock started to die 10 days ago after developing bird flu symptoms, he said.
The Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has yet to confirm the bird flu outbreak in Long An. Now, only southern Tra Vinh province is 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.
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