HANOI, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has just decided to suspend importing poultry and poultry-related products from the United States for fear of the bird flu outbreak.

Accordingly, Vietnam will suspend importing poultries without thermal processing from U.S. states of Wisconsin and Tennessee, as there are outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza H7 and lowly virulent avian influenza H5N2 in these areas, reported local Tien Phong (Pioneer) newspaper on Monday.

MARD urged the Department of Animal Health to closely control those shipments from such areas which had been boarded on planes and ships to transport from the U.S. to Vietnam before March 10, 2017.

The department has made official announcement over the issue to the U.S. relevant authorities.