Quarantine tests may solve smuggled poultry dilemma in Vietnam

The summary destruction of thousands of tonnes of smuggled poultry and eggs each year in Vietnam has resulted in quarantine tests being ordered to reduce costs, waste and pollution.

More than 1,100 cases of poultry and eggs smuggling had been detected this year alone in Quang Ninh, Lang Son and Lao Cai provinces, the Central Steering Committee 127 reported.

Quang Ninh itself had destroyed 716 tonnes of smuggled poultry and nearly 4 million eggs in the past four years at a great cost in manpower and pollution.

As a result, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has ordered the supervised testing and segregation of confiscated poultry with the co-operation of People's Committees and ministries of agriculture, health and public security.

Only poultry which was positive to disease tests would be destroyed, Hai said. Those which were disease-free would be sold.

Senior Lieutenant-Colonel Le Thanh Binh, head of the Quang Ninh's Mong Cai Town Police, said the city spends billions of dong each year to incinerate hundreds of tonnes of smuggled poultry.

Binh said that detecting and seizing the poultry was costly and difficult itself, but to co-ordinate agencies to remove and bury or burn the poultry was even more expensive.