A trial poultry vaccination programme began in the Vietnamese capital in a bid to combat bird flu, which has caused 42 deaths in the communist nation.
"After the pilot program, which started Monday, a mass vaccination campaign will be launched in Hanoi between September 15 and 30," Dao Duy Tam, deputy director of Hanoi's agriculture and rural development department, told AFP.
[...] The government, which earlier planned to begin vaccinating 80 percent of its more than 200 million chickens and ducks in October, decided to bring the start forward to September.
Vietnam wants to complete the mass vaccination before winter, which is believed to be the prime time for the virus to spread.