March 29, 2007

Vietnam tightens control over animal bone powder imports
 

Vietnamese authorities would tighten control over animal bone powder imports used in cattle feed, said the Animal Health Department.

Between last November and January this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development conducted tests on 143 samples of bone powder from 51 imported consignments from Spain, Italy, Germany, the UK and France.

The tests revealed that 10 out of the 51 consignments contained bull or sheep by-products originating from countries with mad cow disease, which are subject to the import ban.

Generally, ADN tests take 7 days and cost VND3 million (US$187.5).

Vietnam imports pig bone powder and pig blood powder for feeding cattle, and re-exports or immediately destroys shipments found with prohibited by-products.

Veterinary authorities did not blame the companies importing the consignments, saying that the exporters provided inaccurate product information.

While ADN tests would be done on suspected consignments to tighten import controls, Chairman of the Association for Foodstuff for Cattle Le Ba Lich expressed concern that such tests would be very difficult to conduct regularly, as only one laboratory is authorised to test bone powder. Additionally, enterprises would have to incur extra storage costs.