The Quang Ngai Province People’s Committee yesterday declared an epidemic of the A/H5N1 avian flu as the disease has spread to five districts, with nearly 58,000 affected ducks and chickens having died or been culled. Under the declaration, poultry slaughtering, transportation and trade are banned in epidemic areas, and urgent measures, including spraying antiseptic in affected areas, must be taken in accordance with to the Health Ministry’s instruction to prevent the spread of the disease. The provincial Veterinary Sub-department said it has sent nearly 80 samples taken from affected poultry to the Veterinary Agency for Zone 4 in Da Nang city for testing, and results have shown that all the samples were infected with the deadly A/H5N1 virus. Currently, the disease has seriously affected 17 communes in five districts, namely Son Tinh, Nghia Hanh, Tu Nghia, Mo Duc and Binh Son, according to the sub-department. The provincial authorities request that breeders inform veterinary agencies of any new epidemic outbreaks and not to trade, slaughter or transport infected poultry. All concerned agencies are required to tighten control over poultry-related activities and absolutely ban transporting of poultry into or out of epidemic areas, the authorities said. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has granted 1 million doses of vaccines against A/H5N1 virus to Quang Ngai to vaccinate all flocks of poultry in the province.