Unsafe poultry pouring into Vietnam’s largest city
VIETNAM - Unchecked poultry is entering Vietnam's largest urban area Ho Chi Minh City from neighboring provinces daily, in spite of efforts by authorities to control the flow over fear of possible bird flu outbreaks.
16 January 2007
2 minute read
Poultry, most of it unchecked, gathered at many ‘transits’ in Long An, Tay Ninh and Binh Duong provinces before being transported to the metro’s suburban districts, Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper reported.
Transporters liked to use motorbikes, which were highly mobile and could take shortcut paths to avoid checks. Each could carry up to a hundred of kilos of poultry.
Smugglers also utilized the Saigon River to transport unchecked poultry into the city of about eight million people, which is only 137 km (85 miles) away from a Mekong Delta village hit bird flu outbreak last week.
“It’s mostly home delivery now,” a man named Khang, who led a transporters’ group, told a disguised reporter of Nguoi Lao Dong. “[Poultry shop owners] from Ho Chi Minh City rarely come to take the goods directly.”
Source: Thanh Nien News
