VZCZCXRO3338
PP RUEHDT RUEHPB
DE RUEHHM #1250/01 3511036
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 171036Z DEC 07
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3464
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 2375
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0033
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 3683

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001250 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, EAP/EP, INR, OES/STC, OES/IHA, MED 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR ANE AND GH 
COMMERCE FOR 4431/MAC/AP/OPB/VLC/HPPHO 
HHS/OSSI/DSI PASS TO OGHA (WSTIEGER/LVALDEZ/CHICKEY) 
FIC/NIH (GLASS), FDA (MPLAISER) 
CDC FOR OGHA (BLOUT/MCCALL) ABD DIV-FLU (COX/MOHEN) 
USDA PASS TO APHIS, FAS (OSTA AND OCRA), FSIS 
BANGKOK FOR RMO, CDC (MMALISON/SMALONEY), USAID/RDM/A 
(CBOWES/JMACARTHUR), APHIS (NCARDENAS), REO (JWALLER) 
BEIJING FOR HHS HEALTH ATTACHE (BROSS) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO ECON EAGR ELAB PREL PGOV OTRA OVIP SENV VM
SUBJECT: SAME LATITUDE, DIFFERENT ATTITUDE:  PROSPERITY TRUMPS PARTY 
LINE IN TWO VIETNAM PROVINCES' BATTLE AGAINST AVIAN INFLUENZA 
 
REF: A. HANOI 1920  B. HANOI 1793 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001250  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Ben Tre and Tra Vinh provinces share similar 
geographies and demographics, as well as outbreak histories for 
highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI).  While both provinces 
still suffer scattered small-scale AI outbreaks, better economic 
governance in Ben Tre has led to a shift from backyard 
operations to larger-scale commercial poultry operations that 
are better able to prevent the virus from entering the poultry 
production chain.  Ben Tre's better governance means more 
effective short-term results (2007 industry loses are a rounding 
error compared to 2004 losses) and a brighter long-term 
prognosis in the fight against AI.  End summary. 
 
 
 
Poultry Losses Down Drastically in Ben Tre 
 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (SBU) ConGen EconOffs met with provincial agency officials 
responsible for human and animal AI in Ben Tre and Tra Vinh 
provinces in southern Vietnam during a November 26th to 28th 
visit:  the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development 
(DARD), the Animal Health Bureau (AHB), the Department of Health 
(DOH), and the Preventive Medicine Center (PMC).  Ben Tre 
officials provided a detailed, statistical overview of the 
effects of AI on the poultry industry.  Since the first AI 
outbreaks in 2003, culling and losses to disease have more than 
halved the fowl population to a current total of 2.3 million 
birds.  In 2004, AI broke out in 71 communes in seven of the 
province's eight districts, resulting in 1.1 million dead or 
culled fowl and 2.4 million eggs destroyed.  In 2005, outbreaks 
in 47 communes in seven districts claimed 700,000 poultry, while 
earlier this month, in the last of two outbreaks since 2005, a 
small, family-raised flock of two month old unvaccinated ducks 
was culled. 
 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Ben Tre Officials attributed their success in 
decreasing outbreaks to a broad-based control and prevention 
regimen in which various government agencies and mass public 
organizations collaborated.  Traveling cultural performances 
(i.e., 'AI operas') and commune-level radio programs were the 
most effective components of the public awareness campaign. 
This year's first two vaccination rounds inoculated 80 and 95 
percent of the provincial poultry flock, respectively.  While 
the vaccine is provided by the central government, the province 
charges larger farms 2000 Vietnam dong (VND) (approximately USD 
0.12) per injection, and subsidizes smaller farms.  Farmers 
obtain financial assistance -- officials deliberately avoid the 
term 'compensation' to stress farmers' responsibility for the 
health of their flocks -- equaling 30 to 50 percent of market 
value for culled poultry.  Officials described the appearance of 
23 large scale poultry operations since 2003 as a positive 
development, as AI is more readily prevented and controlled in 
large concentrated flocks than in dispersed poultry. 
 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Medical personnel at Ben Tre's general hospital showed 
EconOffs the eight bed AI isolation ward (currently used for 
dengue fever patients), two respirators and 50 bio-isolation 
suits, the sum of human AI treatment equipment for this province 
of 1.3 million.  Health officials noted that although Ben Tre 
suffered only one human AI fatality in the last year, the 
province remained vulnerable to outbreaks because of high 
population density and poor hygiene. 
 
 
 
Tra Vinh Holds to the Party Line 
 
-------------------------------- 
 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001250  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Tra Vinh DARD, AHB, DOH, and PMC officials described 
animal AI efforts in detail, but provided no statistics, except 
to say that the province spent four billion VND in 2004 on AI 
prevention and control.  Officials repeatedly stressed that the 
key to their successful AI control program was strict adherence 
to nationwide GVN guidelines.  In accordance with those 
guidelines, the central government provides vaccines, as well as 
honoraria for vaccinators.  Although during a meeting DARD 
stated that the most recent October 2007 outbreak was inevitable 
because AI was endemic in the region, an AHB official at an 
outbreak site visited later identified an uncertified hatchery 
as the specific AI source.  Consolidation of the poultry 
industry has not taken place in Tra Vinh because of a lack of 
private or public capital.  Tra Vinh's most recent human AI 
fatality occurred in August 2005. 
 
 
 
Comment 
 
------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) It is noteworthy that while the most recent AI 
outbreak in Ben Tre was in an unvaccinated backyard flock, the 
source of the last outbreak in Tra Vinh was an uncertified 
hatchery, a much more serious lapse in control of the poultry 
production chain.  Enabled by a higher degree of prosperity, the 
ongoing consolidation of the poultry industry taking place in 
Ben Tre offers the real prospect of eventual control of the AI 
virus, a remote possibility for the impoverished backyard 
chicken farmers of Tra Vinh.  End comment. 
 
 
 
¶7. This cable was coordinated with Embassy Hanoi. 
 
 
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