VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam had been working closely with China to determine the pesticide contained in fruit and vegetables imported from China, said head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Plant Protection Department Nguyen Xuan Hong yesterday, Aug 16.

Agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat called on the department to distribute a list of product origins at the district level for better overseeing.

Phat said the department would check the pesticide residues in 1,300 vegetables samples by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Animal Health Department head Hoang Van Nam said an outbreak of the bird flu would be very likely if localities failed to take effective measures to keep the disease under control.

"The current weather in combination with a weaker immune system of poultry contributed to the increasing risk," he said.

He requested local authorities run communication campaigns to raise public awareness about the disease among farmers, traders and slaughtermen to minimise transmission.

Bird flu has been recorded in the central provinces of Nghe An and Quang Tri, where some 9,000 poultry have died or destroyed.

The ministry has dispatched vaccines to the affected provinces.

Blue-ear and foot-and-mouth diseases were temporarily under control and no new infections had been reported nationwide, the department reported.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News