Vietnam halts poultry imports from avian flu hit US states

The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) issued a decision to halt the imports from March 10, saying that these two US states were facing a strain of low pathogenic H5N2 and the high-pathogenicity H7 avian influenza virus.

MARD has instructed the Veterinary Department to tighten control over the poultry batches imported before March 10 from these states but have not yet been heat treated to eliminate the aviation flu.

Earlier, the US Department of Agriculture said on Sunday that a farm in southern Tennessee that is a supplier to Tyson Foods had been infected with avian flu. Up to 73,500 birds were killed by the disease, while the remainder has since been suffocated with foam to prevent its spread.

The outbreak raised concerns among chicken companies because the infected farm is located near the biggest-producing states for chicken meat, including Georgia and Alabama.

US trading partners, including South Korea and Japan, earlier restricted shipments of US poultry because of the infection in Tennessee.