Bui Quang Anh, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Animal Health Department, explained that since the country depended on imported vaccines, which were shipped in batches of five to seven million doses, it could not ensure a sufficient supply in a short period.

Anh said Vietnam needed to import some 380 million doses of vaccines from China and the Netherlands to immunize 260 million birds in a mass vaccination program which was due to end in November.

Vaccination had been carried out in 28 cities and provinces and nearly 28 million birds had been inoculated, the Vietnam News Agency reported Friday.

Anh said the National Committee for Bird Flu Prevention and Control would ask local authorities to adopt drastic measures to prevent the spread of the disease during the cold season between December and March, when its incidence was high.

(Source: VNA)