According to initial testing by the Vietnam's National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology the five-person family from Vietnam's northern Hai Phong city has been infected with the bird flu virus strain H5N1.

Last week, Vietnam's Health Ministry confirmed that 28 local people have been infected with H5N1 since late December 2004, of whom 14 have died.

Bird flu has hit 35 Vietnamese cities and provinces since January. However, 27 localities have detected no new affected spots for three weeks, meeting criteria to announce an end to the disease. The eight remaining localities include Ben Tre, Can Tho, Dong Thap, Hau Giang, Tra Vinh and Vinh Long in the southern region, and Hai Phong and Hai Duong in the northern region.

AP-FoodTechnology.com reported earlier this week that chicken breeders in Indonesia were being forced to slaughter their stocks as they fight to prevent the spread of bird flu throughout the country.

According to reports in the Jakarta Post, the Indonesian authorities have set aside IDR750 million to help farmers forced to cull their chicken flocks in South Sulawesi, with a further IDR250 million ringfenced for further compensation claims.

However, with roughly IDR2,000 set aside for each slaughtered bird, farmers will receive less than the market price for their chickens, although only infected birds have been slaughtered thus far and the current vaccination programme should help prevent the disease spreading futrther.

That said, the epidemic appears to be spreading throughout the province of South Sulawesi, affecting around 128,000 chickens there so far.

According to the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, bird flu has killed 16.23 million birds in the country, with 8.17 million of them in Central Java, the worst-hit province.