Vietnam culls 100,000 poultry as bird flu outbreaks spread

HANOI: Vietnam has culled more 100,000 poultry so far this year in a bid to contain the spread of bird flu in the Southeast Asian country, the government said on Monday.

The country has reported outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 and H5N6 bird flu strains in 14 provinces, the government said in a statement on its website.

"The risk for the outbreaks to spread on a larger scale is very high," the statement said.

Vietnam has a poultry flock of around 460 million birds, and small-scale bird flu outbreaks have occurred sporadically in the country during the past few years.