Vietnam will decide whether to vaccinate white-winged ducks against bird flu virus or not by the end of this week after successful trial use of Italian vaccination, local media reported yesterday.

Over 80 percent of white-winged ducks being vaccinated against bird flu virus strain H5N9 in the trial vaccination have developed immunity ability, Vietnam Agriculture newspaper quoted Truong Van Dung, director of the country's Veterinary Institute, as saying.

The result is of importance since Vietnam, which has already vaccinated chickens and ducks nationwide, currently has yet to find suitable products to vaccinate its white-winged duck population of nearly 10 million.

If deciding to vaccinate white-winged ducks nationwide, Vietnam will import vaccines of Italian firm Merial, the newspaper said.

Vietnam's poultry population totaled 254 million by late 2002, and has grown at an annual speed of 6.5 percent since. Bird flu outbreaks, starting in the country in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls.

The last outbreak of bird flu among poultry in Vietnam was in December 2005, according to the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.