On November 1st, the Acting Head of the Animal Health Sub-Department of the province, Dinh Van The, confirmed: “The situation is still stable; no (chickens or ducks) have died!” However, we are following up on information provided by readers regarding the communes of Vinh Cong and Hoa Phu (Tan An Town) to investigate reports of suspicious duck deaths.
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Mr. Tam Hoanh is preparing to burn two dead ducks |
In our discussions, the Vice Chairman of the Hoa Phu People’s Committee, Ho Van To, avoided the topic: “There is only one flock of ducks that died due to water pollution, and that was a while ago. In Vinh Cong, 130 ducks have died from H5N1.” Eventually, Mr. To had to point us to a household where ducks had died due to… water pollution (?).
We arrived at the home of Mr. Nguyen Van Hoanh (Tam Hoanh) in Hamlet 4, Hoa Phu commune. Surrounding Mr. Tam Hoanh’s house and nearby homes were strewn with lime powder, indicating to us that there may have recently been a mass death of poultry. Mr. Tam Hoanh stated: “800 ducks, each weighing over 2 kg, have all died. Every day we have to burn dozens of them. As of today, we are still burning.”
His son, Nghi, pointed out to the fields in front of the house, expressing frustration: “More than half a month ago, Mr. Cuong from An Vinh Ngai (Tan An Town) brought a flock of over 1,500 laying ducks into this area to eat fallen rice. A few days later, I saw ducks dying all over the fields, and no one came to collect them. Seeing this, the locals collected and burned them. However, there are still many dead ducks, decaying in the fields.” Mr. Tam Hoanh believes that this flock of ducks has spread the disease to his family’s ducks. When he noticed the deaths, he reported it to the hamlet chief, the commune People’s Committee, and the animal health department, but no one came to address the issue.
Earlier, in mid-October, at the farm of Mr. Le Van Ba in Hamlet 3, Vinh Cong commune, Chau Thanh district, a strange incident occurred where over 200 healthy ducks suddenly had 130 die. As of the afternoon of November 1st, a local official from Vinh Cong commune reported that they had not received test results and therefore did not know the cause of death for this flock of ducks.
VAN TRUONG
