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BANGKOK, Nov 30 (IPS Asia-Pacific) - As the temperature drops and another cool season approaches, Vietnam's duck population is coming under attention because it is suspected to have become vulnerable to the avian influenza virus.

The deaths of large numbers of free-range ducks through November appears to confirm the view that they are no more ''silent carriers'' of the H5N1 virus, as was thought to be the case after the current outbreak of avian flu began in the winter of 2003. In Cao Bang province, in the northern mountains of the country, 60 ducks from a flock of 82, and 12 chickens from a flock of 17, died over a five-day period this month.

''Free-range ducks didn't show signs of the virus unlike chickens, which were getting infected and dying,'' says Jeffery Gilbert, senior technical advisor on avian flu for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). ''Free-range ducks were considered silent carriers of H5N1 up to two-and-a-half years ago.''

But the high mortality rate among ducks during the two main AI outbreaks in the South-east Asian country this year has forced animal health experts into a rethink. ''Nearly three-fourths of the cases reported in Vietnam in 2007 have been free range ducks,'' Gilbert said during a telephone interview from Ho Chi Minh City. ''They are difficult to vaccinate and are left to roam over a three- or four-hectare area at times.''

The U.N. agency estimates that there are some 60 million free range ducks, many of them part of small flocks owned by farmers in the Mekong Delta region. The ducks are often let to roam in the rice fields where they play a useful role, particularly during the harvest season, by eating snails, pests and insects attracted to the paddy ready to be reaped.

But the ducks are also found along roads and pathways, which can contribute to the spread of the virus, since it can be borne on the tyres or parts of vehicles or by people coming into contact with the infected ducks. ''The ducks also mix regularly with wild birds in some areas or migratory birds,'' added Gilbert.

Concerns about Vietnam's duck population -- which was the theme of a two-day meeting held this week in Ho Chi Minh City -- also brings to the fore another troubling feature about the H5N1 strain of the virus. It continues to be a threat in some countries even if no poultry deaths are reported over a long period due to successful containment programmes.

Vietnam, in fact, helps to illustrate this reality. It succeeded in having no bird flu outbreaks through most of 2006, largely due to a national programme that included culling of poultry, vaccinating the chickens, shutting down open chicken markets and an awareness campaign to end local habits that could help spread virus. Last year, the country did not record a single human case of the deadly virus.

But a new wave of H5N1 infections recorded in the poultry and duck populations shortly after Christmas in 2006 lasted till the end of January. Another wave of infections began in mid-May and continues. According to the department of animal health, 34 provinces in the country have been hit by H5N1.

Seven human cases of avian flu have been recorded this year, of which four turned fatal. That brought to 46 the number of deaths in Vietnam to H5N1, making it the second worst-hit country.

Neighbouring Indonesia tops the list of human fatalities, with 91 deaths out of 113 people who fell ill with the bird flu virus since 2005. There have been 33 deaths recorded this year out of 38 people infected with the virus. Thailand, the region's other country that has been hit, has witnessed 17 deaths out of 25 cases since 2004, but none of them were recorded this year.

Globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recorded 206 deaths out in 12 countries, which span Central Asia, Africa, North-east Asia and South-east Asia.

Bird flu has been reported in 60 countries, the United Nations and the World Bank revealed in a report released at the world body's New York headquarters on Thursday. Of that, the virus is entrenched in at least six countries, including Vietnam and Indonesia.

''We have some major anxieties about the extent to which countries' pandemic preparedness plans are really capable of being operationalised,'' Dr. David Nabarro, the senior U.N. official coordinating the global campaign against bird flu, was quoted in a media statement. ''When the pandemic strikes, viruses will not understand borders, and they will spread to all countries and all people of the world will be at risk.''

The new report, which studied the avian flu and pandemic preparedness in 143 countries, adds to the call that has been made since 2004 that countries must strengthen efforts to deal with the threat of the H5N1 virus mutating into a form that will rapidly spread among humans. Were that to happen, the WHO has warned, millions of people could die.