Nearly 50 tigers and three lions have died from bird flu in two Vietnamese zoos. The animals were infected in August and September in zoos in Ho Chi Minh City. A specialist team is destroying the carcasses.
More than thirty zoo employees had contact with the animals during their work, but they did not report any health complaints.
According to local media, Vietnamese health authorities are trying to prevent the virus from spreading further. The zoos are partly closed to visitors and the other animals are isolated.
According to animal rights activists, the outbreak is alarming. They call the increasing number of bird flu cases a tragic consequence of keeping animals in captivity. Animal rights organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) emphasizes that “when the health of animals is at stake, people are also at risk”.
Bird flu
The H5N1 virus, or bird flu, often kills birds, but also mammals increasingly often. An infection in humans can have serious consequences, but that is relatively rare.
In the US, a number of people have been infected with the virus in recent years. Most of them had intensive contact with animals because of their work. Finland was the first country to vaccinate people against bird flu as a precaution.
