Need a mechanism for veterinary collaborators

At this time, the risk of African swine fever and many other diseases in livestock is high. In many localities in Thai Nguyen province, the shortage of grassroots veterinary staff is making disease prevention and control work difficult.

Veterinary staff of Phu Binh commune guide livestock farmers to sign a commitment to ensure safety and disease prevention in livestock.

Thai Nguyen province currently has over 890,000 pigs, of which small-scale pig farming households account for a relatively large proportion, with more than 110,000 households, posing many potential risks of disease outbreaks.

According to the Department of Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries of Thai Nguyen province, before July 1, 2025, the agricultural sector had 268 veterinary staff, of which 165 were from Thai Nguyen province (old) and 103 were from Bac Kan province (old). In addition, the province had 366 grassroots veterinary collaborators to directly advise and assist in livestock management, disease prevention and control at the commune level, including important tasks requiring expertise in disease prevention and control such as disease surveillance, vaccination, and outbreak handling, etc.

Up to now, implementing the 2-level local government model, a number of veterinary staff and the entire veterinary collaborator force have quit their jobs or have taken leave under the Government 's regime, which has affected the monitoring of the epidemic situation as well as supporting localities in livestock development.

Mr. Nguyen Van Vi, a veterinary staff in Phu Binh commune, wondered: After the merger, 4/5 veterinary staff resigned, leaving only me, managing livestock and veterinary work in a large area with over 3,000 households. During this time, the risk of African swine fever outbreak, I alone strained myself to go to the grassroots to grasp the situation, deploy propaganda measures on disease prevention and control. The workload was very large, overloaded.

Fortunately, I have gathered a force of veterinary collaborators at the grassroots level before, and encouraged them to cooperate in this work. First, I will go to the livestock households to implement the signing of commitments, and instruct households with dead pigs to declare, destroy, disinfect and sterilize properly according to regulations, and comply with disease prevention and control measures. However, there is currently no support mechanism, said Mr. Nguyen Van Vi.

Phu Binh commune prepares materials and disinfectant chemicals to provide to livestock facilities.

Mr. Tran Van Tuan, Vice Chairman of Phu Binh Commune People's Committee, said: Previously, there was a team of grassroots veterinary collaborators who regularly monitored the situation, guided people on vaccination and disinfection. Therefore, the shortage at this time makes it difficult for the locality to implement epidemic prevention and control measures.

A similar situation also occurred in Cho Don commune. Ms. Hoang Phuong Dung, Vice Chairman of Cho Don commune People's Committee informed: After the merger, 3 people have resigned according to the State regime, so the commune only has 1 veterinary staff. There are no grassroots veterinary collaborators, the area is large, the number of small and scattered livestock households makes it difficult to prevent and control diseases in livestock. The locality wishes to add more of this force in the near future.

In fact, in many localities, the work of disease prevention and control is facing difficulties due to the lack of local forces to grasp the situation, guide people and advise on professional measures. To ensure the work of disease prevention and control in the context of complicated developments of African swine fever, the Department of Agriculture and Environment has mobilized all professional staff with veterinary and animal husbandry skills, including staff of the Center for Agricultural and Environmental Services to directly support localities in terms of expertise and measures to implement disease prevention and control.

Mr. Duong Van Hao, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, informed: Currently, there are still quite a lot of small-scale household livestock farms in the province. To ensure disease safety for livestock and poultry, it is necessary to have a veterinary force at the grassroots level. The industry hopes that the province will continue to have a policy to maintain the veterinary collaborator team because this is a force that sticks to the grassroots level and coordinates very well with the part-time veterinary staff at the commune level.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/thoi-su-thai-nguyen/202507/can-co-che-cho-cong-tac-vien-thu-y-f891688/