Officers seize 1,900 chickens in Kandal bust
NEARLY 2,000 live poultry specimens were seized by officials from the Department of Animal Health and Production during a May 8 truck stop operation in Kandal province.
“The black chickens had just been imported from Vietnam via Svay Rieng province and were en route to [Kandal province’s] Kien Svay district for wider distribution when we intercepted them very early in the morning,” said Tan Phannara, head of the department, which operates under the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
He explained that he had ordered the department’s intervention team to stop the truck, which was heading to Kien Svay.
“The team halted the truck on a section of National Road 1 near Prek Treng village in Kien Svay. They discovered 1,900 undocumented live black chickens,” he said.
“The seized items were transported to the department’s quarantine facilities, while legal proceedings were pursued,” he added.
Srun Pov, president of the Cambodian Livestock Association CLA), said it was likely that the chickens would be quarantined and tested for disease.
“If no disease is detected, they may be released, but if any issues are discovered, the authorities will apply for permission to destroy the imported poultry,” he said.
“If they had not been intercepted and allowed
to reach the market, they could have had potentially massive impacts on consumers and domestic livestock producers. There is no way of knowing what illnesses they could have spread,” he added.
He warned that a potential outbreak of illness would also have a detrimental effect on the price of domestic chickens across the country.