HANOI, March 7 (Reuters) - Bird flu may have infected poultry on the outskirts of Hanoi, Vietnam's top animal health official said on Wednesday. "This is a suspected case and tests are under way to clarify the infection," said Bui Quang Anh, director of the Agriculture Ministrys' Animal Health Department, referring to a case in Hanoi's Dong Anh district. He declined to give further details. The H5N1 virus may have also infected poultry in the northern province of Quang Ninh, where poultry vaccinations were not carried out fully, Anh was quoted by the on-line newspaper, Dan Tri (www.dantri.com.vn), as saying late on Tuesday. Vietnam has had no human cases of bird flu since November 2005, but the virus, which first arrived in late 2003, returned to poultry in the south late last year. More infections were detected in ducks in the southern province of Vinh Long and in chickens in the northern provinces of Hai Duong and Ha Tay in the past three weeks. On Feb. 27, all 550 chickens were slaughtered on a farm in Ha Tay province, the largest poultry supplier to Hanoi, officials there said. In late February, 10,500 infected chickens were killed in Hai Duong province, east of Hanoi. Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat said last week the H5N1 virus existed throughout Vietnam, even though poultry vaccination had helped prevent its spread. Vietnam is expected to start its next phase of vaccinating poultry in the second half of March and will allow the resumption of raising and hatching waterfowl from March 15.
