Vietnam Announces Foot-And-Mouth Disease Outbreak

[hatrack]

HANOI - Vietnam, already grappling with bird flu that has wiped out millions of its poultry and killed 18 people in Asia, has detected a lethal outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in one province, a health official said this week.

"The disease has hit us very hard," said an official at the animal health department of the central province of Quang Nam, about 465 miles south of the capital Hanoi.

She said the disease had killed more than 1,000 cattle and 200 pigs from six districts in the province.

EDIT

Henry Schmick, Agricultural Officer at the U.S. embassy in Hanoi, told Reuters that foot-and-mouth outbreaks are not unusual in Vietnam and the region. "Periodically, Vietnam suffers from foot-and-mouth disease," he said, adding that it can take a mild form."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23779/story.htm