Multiple makeshift poultry markets have mushroomed in several Ho Chi Minh City’s districts, including 2, 8, 12, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Thu Duc, Go Vap, and Binh Thanh. It is easily to see baskets of live chickens on the streets; consumers just wait for ten minutes while street vendors kill the hen for them at a small alley behind Pearl Plaza Building at 561 Dien Bien Phu Street in Binh Thanh District.
Not only live chicken and ducks but also doves, quails and rabbits are sold in a makeshift market Binh Trieu. Sellers offer competitive prices; therefore, these stalls are crowded with buyers.
Around tens street vendors display their baskets of live chickens in Duong Thi Muoi Street in Tan Chanh Hiep Ward in District 12 and Nguyen Van Cong Street in Binh Thanh District in the morning and afternoon everyday.
Most of illegal live poultry spots are small business locations in traditional markets; such activities pose a high risk of spreading an avian influenza outbreak, threatening the health of the community especially in the context of complicated bird flu development. Market management boards said that because street vendors sell poultry illicitly outside the market, they can’t intervene into their business.
In the city Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s document 2321 sent to related agencies and people’s committees in districts in October, 2020, it quoted the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s figure that from the beginning of the year till now, 67 communes in 24 cities and provinces have reported outbreaks of bird flu.
The number of bird flu outbreaks in the country doubled last year and the number of poultry which died of bird flu in the country tripled last year.
Accordingly, the Department proposed the HCMC People’s Committee to reinforce its preventative measures against bird flu and handle illegal sales of poultry in districts. Chairpersons of people’s committees in districts will be held accountable if the disease occurs in the area under their management.
Simultaneously, the Department of Industry and Trade also proposed market managers in its document to encourage traders to sell safe poultry meat and poultry products with clear indications of origin. Violators will be punished if they sell unsafe products.
