Tigers and lions living in captivity in Vietnam have died of the bird flu.  In the past month, 47 tigers, three lions, and a panther in a southern Vietnam zoo have died while their tests show positive for bird flu, health ministry and state media said on Thursday.

According to a report by Reuters, two samples taken from dead tigers at Mango Garden Resort in Dong Nai province have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. Twenty tigers have died at the resort since early last month.

According to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), in neighboring Long An Province 27 tigers died at the private My Quynh Safari Park in Long An Province and the Vuon Xoai Zoo in Dong Nai, near Ho Chi Minh City. These deaths occurred between September 6th and the 18th.

The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, to mammals including cows, dogs, cats, and even dolphins worldwide has raised concerns about potential human-to-human transmission. –Reuters

The mainstream media and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, however, are now reporting that the risk of human-to-human transmission is low. According to Bloomberg, all “contacts” in the Missouri cases had mild symptoms that resolved on their own, but the CDC is continuing to monitor the situation.

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No staff members were in contact with the ill animals, and the tigers at Mango Garden Resort had been fed chicken before they died, Phan Van Phuc, an official of Dong Nai province’s Centre for Disease Control, said in the health ministry statement. “It’s likely that the tigers had been infected from sick chicken, and the authorities are tracking the source of the chicken to determine the cause,” the statement quoted Phan as saying.

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