Vietnam culled 2 million pigs over African swine fever
By Minh Thu
June 01, 2019 | 11:49 AM GMT+7
“It is a major issue, never before happened so brutally to our husbandry industry”, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said of the severe impact of the African swine fever that is killing millions of local pigs at the National Assembly meeting held yesterday.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong responded to the ASF issue at a NA meeting session.
The disease, which first detected in Hung Yen province in early February, has so far spread to 48 cities and provinces in Vietnam.
The virus is dangerous in its own right, as 100 per cent of the pigs affected will subsequently die.
While it is said to be not communicable to humans, the virus can survive for a long time in the natural environment, even in unfavorable conditions, and spread very quickly by live or dead pigs.
Even though the ASF has first appeared nearly 100 years ago, there has been no vaccine or treatment developed to date to cure the disease.
Preventative measures are the only option for now to stop the outbreak spreading, by culling all affected or exposed swine herds.
Cuong said the country has so far exterminated some 2 million exposed pigs, equivalent to 117,000 tonnes and accounting for 6.5 per cent of the total pig population here.
In the coming time, without proper procedures to contain the disease, coupled with the complicated weather conditions, the minister noted that the disease may spread to new areas, or go back to areas that have been controlled and declared free of the fever for 30 days. In worst case, the fever can eventually attack large-scale pig farms across the nation.
According to Cuong, Vietnam currently has over 90 per cent of its pig herd unaffected by the outbreak but the local port market should prepare for pig shortage and a surge in price in the third and fourth quarters. Pork prices have been reported to rise in neighbouring countries like China.
Pork accounts for 75 per cent of total meat consumption in Vietnam.
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