Vietnamese animal health authorities officially recognized the resurgence of bird flu in the northern Dien Bien Province on Sunday, a half a year since the country brought the deadly virus under control.

A total of 2,283 chickens in the area had been destroyed, the department said.

The Animal Health Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said in a statement Sunday that the outbreak was occurring after six months in which the disease was fully contained throughout the country.

Another statement by the department in June said Vietnam had successfully curbed the spread of bird flu, together with two other livestock diseases — foot-and-mouth and the blue ear pig disease.

Since early this year, bird flu has occurred in 16 provinces and cities, prompting the culling and destruction of 100,000 ducks and chickens, according to the ministry.

Vietnam has the world’s second-highest human bird flu death toll after Indonesia, with 56 deaths to date, including four this year. The last case was a 23-year-old woman who died in northern Thanh Hoa province in late April, AFP reported.

Reported by Quang Duan