SAME LATITUDE, DIFFERENT ATTITUDE: PROSPERITY TRUMPS PARTY

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. FAIRFAX