Goose Parts From Bird Flu-Ridden China Lost in U.S.
U.S. inspectors are probing the disappearance of four boxes of goose intestines smuggled from China, where bird flu is spreading.
The Department of Agriculture had tagged about 100 pounds of goose guts, a delicacy used in some Chinese recipes, for destruction before they disappeared last week from a Troy, Michigan, warehouse, officials said today. Agency inspectors previously found about 2,000 pounds of frozen poultry shipped illegally from China at the same warehouse.
Smuggling of poultry products poses a risk for avian influenza, which has infected 230 people in 10 countries in Asia and the Middle East, killing 132. Frozen products pose less risk because they aren’t likely to spread virus to other birds, said Joseph Domenech, chief veterinary officer for the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, based in Rome.
``Nothing can be sure and everything can happen,’’ Domenech said in a telephone interview late yesterday. ``This is smuggling and it’s totally uncontrolled.’’
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