Avian Flu

At the Vietnam-China frontier area, authorities spend sleepless nights.  The place is a hotspot for smugglers, especially those who illegally transport chicken from China to Vietnam via different roads.

To make this daring documentary, Le Thi Thoa and Bui Tuan Linh pretended to be tourists and interviewed an illegal transporter who guided them through the dark and complicated world of chicken smugglers.

What’s more alarming than the illegality of the act is the possibility that these law breakers are facilitating the spreading of the H5N1 virus or avian flu.

After over 4 years of avian flu incidence, are the Vietnamese and the Chinese now fully prepared to combat this threat to health and livelihood? 

“China Border” explores the impact of the long bout with the H5N1 virus on the ways of life of poultry farmers in Vietnam and China.

In the midst of excitement during a game or a sporting event, safety is not on top of the minds of participants and spectators.  In the thrill of a cockfight, breeders, caretakers and gamblers may disregard the risk of contracting avian flu.

This is why in Lao PDR, cockfighting arenas are banned by the authorities in big cities like Vientiane. They are allowed only in remote communities, where it is easier to screen the animals. Authorities from both Laos and Thailand have also prohibited the transporting of birds across the Lao-Thai border.

The bird flu outbreak of 2007 in Lao PDR was far more grave than the country’s previous experiences with the disease.  The Second Friendship Bridge, which links Laos to Thailand and Vietnam, has brought not only trade to the province, but also carriers of the avian flu virus. It spread in four provinces in the country, and affected human beings, something that the Lao people have not experienced.

CAN THO, Vietnam, Jun 30 (Newsmekong) - The bustling city of Can Tho is the capital of southern Vietnam’s fertile Mekong Delta and one of the country’s two main rice baskets.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Jun 3 (Newsmekong) - Vietnamese researchers have announced significant progress in their effort to develop a prototype vaccine for the H5N1 avian influenza, despite criticism from some scientists that their methods are “unorthodox”.

VIENTIANE, Jun 1 (Newsmekong) - An outbreak of avian flu in northern Laos earlier this year has demonstrated that despite the government’s ongoing vigilance, this South-east Asian country faces a continuing threat from the disease.

KANCHANABURI, Thailand - Mornings at Don Ngiew, a village in Phanom Thuan district in this western province, are eerily silent these days. The clucking of chickens that used to wake farmers up, signalling the start of another day at the rice fields, has been replaced by the mechanical whirr of alarm clocks.

The first outbreak of avian flu in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in early 2004 struck 45 poultry farms throughout the country, 38 of which were in and around the capital of Vientiane. The outbreak resulted in the loss of 155,000 birds, a third of which were infected by the disease.

PREY VENG, Cambodia - It was a wedding party without guests. The neighbours were afraid to come because they did not want to eat the food, especially chicken, served at the party. The hosts were being discriminated against, all because of an outbreak of bird flu.