October 26, 2005

Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City expands ban on raising poultry

Authorities in Vietnam's southern commercial center of Ho Chi Minh City would expand a ban on raising poultry from its urban center to rural districts, in an effort to prevent the re-emergence of bird flu, an official said Wednesday.

Earlier this year, the government banned raising chickens and ducks in the 15 urban districts of the city, which was home to about seven million people. The ban would be expanded to the nine rural districts by the end of November, said Phan Xuan Thao, deputy director of the city's animal health department.

Authorities would also tighten inspections of poultry arriving from neighbouring provinces to make sure that only healthy birds were allowed in, he said.

Commercial poultry farms raised nearly 90 percent of Ho Chi Minh City's 800,000 chickens and quails, Thao said.

Meanwhile, farmers who have flaunted a ban on raising poultry in their backyards would be given until the end of this month to slaughter all their chickens and quails, Thao said.

State-controlled media reported earlier this week that Vietnam was also considering banning the raising, trading and slaughtering of poultry in urban areas nationwide, along with the sale of raw blood pudding.

Bird flu has resulted in the deaths of more than 100 million birds since surfacing in 2003. The virus also jumped to humans killing more than 60 in Asia, the majority of them in Vietnam.