HANOI: Vietnam has not exported live poultry to any country yet so that a ban by Saudi Arabi has no effect on Vietnam,” an official of the Department of Animal Health in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam said today.
He spoke after Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture temporarily banned the import of live birds, hatching eggs and chicks from Vietnam due to concerns over bird flu on Sunday.
Currently, only one Vietnamese company is planning to export processed chicken to Japan. This enterprise has built a chicken slaughtering and processing factory in the southern province of Đồng Nai, the official said.
Osama Bin Abdullah Al-Saleh, Saudi Arabia’s director general of the Department of Animal and Plant Quarantine, said that the ban was imposed following a bird flu warning in Vietnam issued by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
Several cases of avian flu have been detected, therefore, the import suspension will remain in force until the disease is eradicated, Osama added.
On March 26, Saudi Arabia’s ministry also banned the import of live poultry, hatching eggs and chicks from Tennessee after a form of highly lethal bird flu was detected in the United States. This suspension was imposed after WOAH’s warning and will remain in force until Tennessee is free of the disease.
In March, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture said two flocks of chicken were found to be infected with H7N9 flu.
