Vietnam has culled more than 100,000 poultry this year to contain the spread of bird flu. Outbreaks of the pathogenic H5N1 and H5N6 bird flu strains were reported across 14 provinces.

A statement posted on the Vietnamese Government website said: “The risk for the outbreaks to spread on a larger scale is very high.”

The country currently has a poultry flock of almost 460 million birds.

Small-scale bird flu outbreaks have been reported in the country over the last many years.

In September 2012, nearly 180,000 birds were culled in Vietnam to stop a massive bird flu outbreak caused by a toxic strain of H5NI virus.

Commonly called bird flu, avian influenza has been spreading rapidly, putting the poultry industry across the world on alert and leading to the culling of tens of millions of birds.

Last November, Japan’s Kagawa prefecture announced its plans to cull 330,000 chickens at a farm after an outbreak of bird flu.

The outbreak was identified in Japan’s poultry sector after more than two years.

Japanese Farm Minister Katora Nogami had then confirmed the avian flu breakout was identified at a chicken farm in Mitoyo, Kagawa prefecture, following a preliminary examination.

Last month, India reported bird flu in its ten states. In December 2020, Ukraine reported an outbreak of this highly pathogenic bird flu among backyard birds in its southern region.