The minister made the alert at a meeting between the National Steering Committee for Bird Flu Prevention and Control and authorities of concerned ministries and northern provinces in Hanoi on Tuesday.

He urged the localities to keep the disease under surveillance at its source – breeding farms – in order to promptly contain it.

At the meeting, representatives of the Trade Ministry's Market Management Department said its forces have bolstered inspections of trade, slaughtering and sales of poultry and poultry products, especially at high-risk and populated areas.

Market management forces were also instructed to cooperate with customs officers and border guards to prevent the flow of smuggled poultry into the country.

In fear of new outbreaks of bird flu, which already re-emerged in the southernmost province of Ca Mau and neighboring Bac Lieu province, authorities of Ho Chi Minh City ordered the employment of all measures to halt the spread of the disease.

Chairmen of the communal and district people's committees were required to take control of slaughtering and trade of illegal poultry and eggs in their locations.

Meanwhile, veterinary forces were ordered to maintain round-the-clock inspections at animal quarantine stations.

The authorities of the country's biggest economic hub also asked the healthcare service to prepare medicines for the fight against avian influenza in humans in case it occurs in the city and neighboring provinces.

Municipal healthcare officials have also been ordered to increase food hygiene inspections in the city.

The municipal market management forces have coordinated with other forces to tighten the control on transport of waterfowl and poultry into the city from both the waterway and inter-provincial land routes.

The veterinary departments of the 10 northern provinces and cities, including Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, Ha Tay and Hanoi, have announced they vaccinated more than 90 percent of the total poultry in the region.

Speaking at the meeting in Hanoi Tuesday, head of the Veterinary Department Bui Quang Anh also warned of the possible spread of the human form of aviation influenza in the coming time.

Anh stressed the infection of bird flu in southern provinces of Ca Mau and Bac Lieu has temporarily been brought under control. All poultry in the infected areas, reported at around 9,000 fowl, were culled.

Vietnam has had no human bird flu cases since late 2005, but lost 42 people to the disease since it originally broke out in 2003, second only to Indonesia's 57.

The disease has killed 154 people out of 258 infected globally.

Source: Tuoi Tre, SGGP – Translated by Thu Thuy