Farmyard chickens

Most farmers have a collection of these pretty chickens. The practice keeps them more or less self-sufficient in protein (meat and eggs). They are free ranging and seem to get on well enough with cats and dogs. They are seen to be a problem with regard to bird flu because they live in close proximity to people and kids especially are vulnerable if they are handling the birds a lot. On the other hand, transmission between birds is less likely if they are scattered between farms - one farm can get infected without the disease necessarily affecting other chickens in the area. Farmers in this particular village were vaccinating their chickens and ducks, but the scientific community regards this practice as somewhat problematical since it isn't known whether the virus remains dormant in the bird after vaccination or not. In other words, it is possible that wild birds coming into contact with vaccinated birds might still get infected.

Vietnam has been more successful than most of its neighbours in controlling bird flu and I think this is because it has a rather good public health system and a reasonably well-educated rural population. In light of the media coverage of bird flu at the time, this farmer asked me if I was afraid of his chickens and the answer was, well, no actually.


I planned to return earlier than this, but work piled up during my vacation! Plan B was to return yesterday - Vietnam's National Day - but internet problems interfered. So Plan C has gone into action! Hope I can keep it up from now on. Heading back to Vietnam on Wednesday, so there will no doubt be some new photos soon as well.