Vietnam destroys 2,500 ducklings smuggled from China as bird flu scare looms

Officials in Vietnam's northern province of Quang Ninh have disposed of more than 2,500 ducklings which were seized in a smuggled cargo from China, Vietnam News Agency said.

The ducklings, estimated to cost more than VND17 million ($750), were seized from a Vietnamese truck Wednesday and the driver said they were taken in from China but failed to produce any legal transaction documents, the report cited market inspectors in Quang Ninh as saying.

The driver, who also owns the shipment, has been fined VND8 million while the ducklings were buried, the report said.

Vietnamese laws stipulate that any illegal goods have to be destroyed by crushing or burning. Last year, Quang Ninh customs made global headlines when they destroyed around half a ton each of live cats and chickens smuggled from China.

The Vietnamese government has ordered strict control over poultry smuggling across the land border with China, where the deadly bird flu virus H7N9 has been rampaging.

Bird flu outbreaks in poultry have recurred in Vietnam in recent months. The H5N1 virus is active in Mekong Delta’s Can Tho City, its neighbor Hau Giang Province and the central province of Ha Tinh while the nearby Quang Tri Province is dealing with a H5N6 virus outbreak, the government said in a statement earlier this week. 

A locality is defined as free of bird flu if no new infection is detected within 21 days.