Vietnam's largest city bans live poultry sales to prevent bird flu
HANOI - One week after Vietnam controversially declared itself free of bird flu, Ho Chi Minh City authorities have banned the sale of live poultry at inner city markets to prevent a recurrence of the disease that killed 16 people in the country.
The ban was ordered by the southern business capital's animal health department along with a slew of regulations on the slaughter of live birds, city authorities said Tuesday.
Under the new regulations the culling of birds for sale must only be carried out at government-approved slaughterhouses, which must be located away from the most densely populated areas of the city -- the country's largest metropolis.
The abbatoirs must also be fully enclosed and have separate entrances for the transport of live and dead poultry.
"Ho Chi Minh City authorities have taken very prudent steps in dealing with the consequences of bird flu by banning the sale of live chickens even though the country has been declared free of the disease," Bui Quang Anh, spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, told AFP.
State media said city authorities were also planning the construction of two or three large-scale slaughterhouses within the next two years to supply markets and meet 70 percent of local demand or up to 50,000 birds per day.
Last Tuesday the government declared an end to its deadly bird flu crisis Tuesday despite warnings from United Nations (news - web sites) health experts that it was acting prematurely and recklessly.
It also lifted bans on the breeding, transport, processing and sale of poultry but ruled that all birds must be inspected and certified by veterinary inspectors before being sold.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization , however, has cast doubt on the communist nation's ability to enforce and police such provisions.
The World Health Organization has charged Vietnam with being more concerned at putting its poultry industry back on a sound footing, possibly at the cost of public health.
Over 43 million poultry have died or been slaughtered across the country as a result of bird flu, which was detected in 57 of its 64 provinces. But the government says there have been no new outbreaks since February 26.
With 16 deaths from the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza, Vietnam is in human terms the worst affected of the eight Asian countries where the virus has been detected this year.
Thailand, where eight people have died from the disease, is the only other country to have confirmed human infections.
Agence France Presse - April 06, 2004.
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