Ministry asks for concerted efforts to prevent poultry smuggling

 

Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asked for cooperation from cities and provinces and relevant ministries in preventing illegal transport and smuggling of poultry and cattle into Vietnam.

The move came following the concern over the increasing smuggling of poultry which are in high demand during the Tet, or traditional Vietnamese New Year holiday.

The ministry urged the cities and provinces nationwide to take drastic measures to promptly discover and prevent illegal transport, trade and trafficking of cattle, poultry and poultry products in the country and strictly punish violators.

At the same time, the local administrations are requested to keep a close watch of border gates and trails along borders, particularly in northern border provinces, to tighten control on imports of poultry and poultry products into Vietnam.

Any batch of wild animals and animal products illegally entering the country must be destroyed without delay after samples from these products are sent to competent veterinary authorities for disease testing.

The cities and provinces must also persuade people living in border areas to not involve in the poultry trafficking or help traffickers, and further raise public awareness of possible infectious diseases caused by smuggled animals which would pose threats to the animal breeding industry and public health.

The northern province of Lang Son, which shares border with China, is among those experiencing worst poultry illegal transport and smuggling. Since the beginning of this year, it cracked down on about 102 cases smuggling a total of more than 118,000 breeding poultries, over three tonnes of poultry meat and 26,000 eggs.–VNA