Officials in Vietnam have confirmed an eighth outbreak of bird flu among poultry in the country's southern Mekong Delta region.
The Department of Animal Health said Thursday, that 30 ducklings in the city of Can Tho died from the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.
Vietnam has had no human cases of bird flu since late 2005, but the virus re-emerged on poultry farms in the Mekong Delta last month. The disease has killed or forced the slaughter of tens of thousands of birds.
The H5N1 strain has killed more than 150 people worldwide, mainly in Asia, since 2003. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed between people.
At 42 deaths, Vietnam is second only to Indonesia in the number of human bird flu fatalities.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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