As it is just under three months until the Tet holiday of 2024, many localities have lacked drastic measures and ignored disease prevention solutions.
African swine fever breakout on a large scale
In mid-October, Long An Province recorded 10 cases of sick and dead pigs.
The provincial veterinary industry took samples for testing and found the African swine fever virus. Immediately, the local authority destroyed all remaining pigs in the herd with a total weight of 4,620 kilograms.
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The Long An Province's veterinary department takes samples for testing. (Photo: Ngoc Phuc) |
In the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, from October 21 until now, Xuan Dong Commune in Cho Gao District has detected 15 ASF-infected points with a total of 6,500 pigs.
Through classification and testing, local authorities destroyed 300 pigs weighing 16 tons.
Meanwhile, from the end of October until now, the functional agencies of Ha Tinh Province have also destroyed nearly 50 ASF-infected pigs with a total weight of more than 4,000 kilograms in three districts of Cam Xuyen, Duc Tho and Nghi Xuan.
According to the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, from the beginning of 2023 until now, the country has recorded 481 outbreaks in 44 provinces and cities nationwide.
Although more than 18,100 pigs were forced to be destroyed to prevent spread, the epidemic in some provinces of Lang Son, Dak Lak, Son La and Nghe An has not been controlled absolutely yet.
Notably, from the beginning of November until now, more outbreaks have spread in many other localities of Tien Giang, Ha Tinh, Khanh Hoa, Quang Tri and so on.
In some places, ASF-infected pigs have been slaughtered and sold at the market, causing a sharp drop in the prices of live pigs. Moreover, dead pigs have been dumped into canals and rivers in Nghe An Province, bringing fears of the widespread disease spread.
Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Health Phan Quang Minh said that African swine fever is rapidly spreading across the country.
Apart from illegally trading, selling and transporting pigs without quarantine, cold spells are likely to create favorable conditions for the virus development in the coming time, added Mr. Minh.
Although most of the ASF outbreaks have been detected early to avoid spread on pig farms, the fact is that the disease significantly affected restocking herds of pigs to serve people’s demand for the Tet market.
According to Huynh Ngoc Nha, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Soc Trang Province, amid the complicated developments of ASF, farming households in the area have not been ready to restock their herds of pig and fear of virus in the environment.
The Prime Minister has just issued an official letter on the drastic and synchronous implementation of preventive solutions for ASF, especially during the Tet holiday.
Accordingly, the Prime Minister requested heads of the Provincial and City People's Committees to directly direct and mobilize all resources to completely tackle outbreaks and avoid the occurrence of new outbreaks.
It is essential to destroy infectious pigs or suspected cases with the ASF virus and dead pigs and proactively implement policies to support farmers damaged by the disease in accordance with the law.
Besides, it is important to promptly detect, prevent and resolutely tackle cases of illegally trading and transporting sick pigs, dumping dead pig carcasses, causing the spread of disease and environmental pollution and so on.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development directed the veterinary force to closely monitor the development of ASF, proactively instruct farmers to increase regular monitoring of the health of pig herds and application of biosecurity measures in farming, hygiene and disinfection measures with lime powder and chemicals in livestock areas.
In addition, the ministry will continue to proactively coordinate with international organizations and countries in sharing and supporting Vietnam in the disease prevention and control, research and production of vaccines against the African swine fever virus.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade directed market management forces and relevant units to coordinate with veterinary forces, police and traffic inspectors to strictly handle cases of illegally trading and transporting pigs or pig products without origin or not to be quarantined in the market
Increasing vaccination and biosecurity measures
In order to prevent outbreaks of African swine fever, the representative of the National Veterinary Joint Stock Company (NAVETCO) requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to build a mechanism for mandatory vaccination for all types of diseases.
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People take ASF-infected pigs to destroy. (Photo: Duong Quang) |
In order to ensure the supply resource of food for the domestic and export markets, especially to serve the people’s demand during the Tet holiday, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien requested localities promote vaccination against disease, absolutely not to be subjective or negligent in disease prevention and control works.
Besides, the localities were asked to strengthen biosecurity measures in farms and prevent illegal import of livestock and poultry into Vietnam, especially breeding animals at the end of the year, thereby reducing the risk of disease outbreaks and spreads.
According to Director of the Department of Animal Health Nguyen Van Long, although the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development allowed large-scale vaccination against the African swine fever virus, the localities have just run out of nearly 375,000 doses.
Currently, more than two million vaccines have been in stock and stored in companies' warehouses.
From June 2022 up to now, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development granted circulation certificates in Vietnam for two types of ASF vaccines including the NAVET-ASFVAC vaccine, produced by NAVETCO Central Veterinary Medicine Joint Stock Company and the AVAC ASF LIVE vaccine, produced by the AVAC Vietnam Joint Stock Company.
Vietnam is the first country to successfully research the vaccine against African swine fever and the ASF vaccines have been allowed to be widely circulated and used nationwide from July 2023 until now.
