Eight outbreaks of the African swine fever in 40 households in the Mekong Delta Province of Tien Giang. From October till now, 20 households the province have had pigs contract the dangerous virus with most cases in Tan Phu Dong District. The local administration has announced the epidemic in Tan Thoi Commune.
Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Tien Giang Province Nguyen van Man said that competent state agencies are spraying disinfectants to prevent the pandemic and increase supervision to curb wide spread.
In the mean time, Bac Tuan Kiet, head of the center for disease control under the Department of animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries in Dong Thap Province said that the African swine fever is attacking herds of hogs in communes including Binh Thanh, Tan Binh, Tan Long, Binh Thanh, Hoa An in Cao Lanh Town. Around 84 pigs have been killed. The local government has disinfected the area where outbreaks of the disease occurred.
Breeder Huynh Van Hon in Tan Phu Trung Commune in Chau Thanh District, in Dong Thap province said that residents in the commune produce rice powder and farmers have made use of by-products to raise pigs.
Since the African swine fever outbreaks re-occurred, agricultural agencies have run refresher course on biosecurity of pigs at the farm level - the set of practical measures taken to help pig farmers prevent entrance of infection into a pig farm and control the spread of infection within that their farms. Accordingly, despite of re-occurrence of the African swine fever, just a few of pigs in farms were killed.
Being considered a center for pig farms in the South region, Dong Nai Province is expected to supply enough pork for Tet holidays.
Presently, more than 2.1 million hogs are raised in the province, a year-on-year increase of 10.76 percent to provide approximately 35.489 tons of pork in local markets.
This proves small-scaled farms have well reorganized pig raising, prevented the disease and restore piglets for farms to satisfy meat consumption in the special holiday.
Deputy Chairman of the Livestock Association in Dong Nai Nguyen Kim Doan said that the province targeted to restore around 2.5 millions of pigs like before the outbreaks of the African swine fever to ensure supply of meat for local markets in the special holiday. However, amid the African swine fever outbreaks and flood devastation in the Central region, the supply of meat may not meet consumer demand.
According to the Department of Industry and Trade, port is an subsidized items; therefore, the Department will work with related units and large farms to assess the situation to keep suitable price in the special holiday.
Worse, due to impact of the African swine fever, some localities have been suffering shortage of piglets despite pig price surge to VND3 million (US$129) a piglet. Traders in some places sold pig without clear indication of origin but farmers still buy for re-raising– this easily leads to spread of the pandemic.
Additionally, some pig farmers switched to breed another animal for fear of the African swine fever while others were short of capital to re-raise; hence , hog herds in the Mekong Delta region reduced much.
A leader of Department of animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries in Dong Thap Province said that the number of hogs in the province dipped from 300,000 – 500,000 yearly to 70,000 – 80,000 annually. Dong Thap authorities have had to purchase pigs from other provinces for consumption daily.
At the same time, a leader of the Department of animal husbandry and animal health in Ca Mai revealed about 84,480 hogs in the province can satisfy half of consumer demand.
There is no choice but the province will have to buy pigs from neighboring provinces. It is inevitable that the province will buy pigs from other places in the Lunar New Year when the consumer demand is higher than normal days.
