Vietnam's Department of Animal Health said on Sunday bird flu has recently hit fowls in northern Ninh Binh province, raising the total number of affected localities nationwide to seven, according to local media reports on Monday.

The disease outbreak started on Feb. 18 in Ninh Binh's Yen Khanh district, killing over 330 poultry raised by a household, said Youth newspaper.

Vietnam currently has seven localities having poultry being hit by bird flu: Thai Nguyen, Quang Ninh, Hai Duong, Nam Dinh, Tuyen Quang and Ninh Binh in the northern region, and southern Long An province.

To prevent further spread of bird flu among fowls, the Vietnamese government has assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to be in charge of importing some 250 million doses of bird flu vaccines in the coming time, said Saigon Liberation newspaper. Vietnam will import several batches of bird flu vaccines, mainly from China, to vaccinate poultry nationwide this year.

Bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam, starting in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls in the country.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2008)