November 14, 2007

Vietnam poultry industry moving forward despite bird flu

Vietnam's poultry players and representatives of the US Poultry & Egg Association met in Hanoi November 9 to discuss the sustainable development of the Vietnamese poultry industry.

According to Vietnam Poultry Breeders' Association's President and General Secretary Tran Cong Xuan, Vietnam now has 2,837 poultry farms producing 400,000 tonnes of fowl meat and 4 to 5 billion eggs per year.

Xuan said while the poultry industry is behind the pork industry in terms of meat output, 70 percent of farms were run by households where the application of new technologies and veterinary standards is not given adequate attention.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Animal Husbandry Department suggested that poultry breeding and concentrated breeding areas should be zoned off, noting that farm applied breeding methods should be strictly adopted.

US Poultry & Egg Association's technical director, Mark Lobstein said his association will continue train and help poultry breeders over the bird flu mayhem.

He, however, noted that Vietnamese people are not fully aware of the damage caused by avian influenza which has killed four since May this year.

Bird flu are struck six Vietnamese provinces of Tra Vinh, Ben Tre, Quang Tri, Cao Bang, Nam Dinh, and Ha Nam, killing hundreds of chickens and ducks.

As of November 12, sixty cities and provinces nationwide have vaccinated 115.74 million poultry against the pandemic, including 62.48 million chickens and 53.26 million ducks.