Competent agencies detain a truck carrying illegal poultry in Lang Son (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA)– The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asked for cooperation fromcities and provinces and relevant ministries in preventing illegal transportand smuggling of poultry and cattle into Vietnam.
The move came followingthe concern over the increasing smuggling of poultry which are in high demandduring the Tet, or traditional Vietnamese New Year holiday.
The ministry urged thecities and provinces nationwide to take drastic measures to promptly discoverand prevent illegal transport, trade and trafficking of cattle, poultry and poultryproducts in the country and strictly punish violators.
At the same time, thelocal administrations are requested to keep a close watch of border gates and trailsalong borders, particularly in northern border provinces, to tighten control onimports of poultry and poultry products into Vietnam.
Any batch of wild animalsand animal products illegally entering the country must be destroyed withoutdelay after samples from these products are sent to competent veterinaryauthorities for disease testing.
The cities and provincesmust also persuade people living in border areas to not involve in the poultry traffickingor help traffickers, and further raise public awareness of possible infectiousdiseases caused by smuggled animals which would pose threats to the animalbreeding industry and public health.
The northern province of LangSon, which shares border with China, is among those experiencing worst poultry illegaltransport and smuggling. Since the beginning of this year, it cracked down on about102 cases smuggling a total of more than 118,000 breeding poultries, over threetonnes of poultry meat and 26,000 eggs.–VNA
VNA
