Proactively prevent and control diseases in livestock and poultry

Since the beginning of the year, the epidemic situation in livestock herds nationwide has been complicated, with tens of thousands of sick livestock and poultry having to be destroyed. In Ninh Binh, there have also been some outbreaks of African swine fever and avian influenza. Faced with the risk of the epidemic continuing to increase sharply in the coming time, specialized sectors and localities are actively implementing synchronous solutions to control and prevent livestock and poultry diseases, and protect production.

Raising free-range chickens in Dong Son commune, Tam Diep city. Photo: Ngoc Linh

According to reports from veterinary agencies and localities, since the beginning of the year, African swine fever has appeared in 410 communes in 40 provinces and cities, forcing the destruction of over 17,400 pigs (an increase of 53.74% over the same period in 2023); 44 communes in 13 provinces and cities have had Foot and Mouth Disease; 34 provinces and cities have detected animals suspected of having Rabies; over 60 communes in 9 provinces have had Lumpy Skin Disease; 7 provinces have had Avian Influenza A/H5N1, forcing the destruction of over 12,000 poultry, in particular, 1 person died from CGC A/H5N1 virus infection and 1 person infected with CGC A/H9N2 virus. The risk of the epidemic will continue to increase sharply in the coming time, seriously affecting food supply, consumer price index (CPI), people's health and the environment.

In our province, there are also sporadic outbreaks of disease in livestock, most commonly African swine fever. Specifically, in Yen Mo district, at its peak, up to 7/17 communes and towns in the district had this disease.

Comrade Nguyen Thi Len, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Yen Mo district, said: Yen Mo is one of the key localities in animal husbandry in the province with a relatively large number of cattle and poultry. The whole district currently has nearly 5,000 buffaloes and cows, more than 30,000 pigs, over 483,000 poultry, and 1,500 goats. It is worth mentioning that besides large-scale livestock households, there are many small-scale livestock households in the area, with barns located in residential areas, making disease management extremely difficult. Since the beginning of the year, a number of communes and towns have had animal epidemics, with avian influenza in Yen Dong and Yen Phong at the beginning of the year; in addition, with African swine fever, this is a disease for which vaccines are not yet widely available, and the rate of spread is fast, so at one point there were up to 7 localities in the district with the epidemic.

In order to limit damage to people and protect production, Yen Mo district has proactively implemented prevention and control measures, including promoting vaccination with the main motto of disease prevention. From April 29 to June 20, the whole district has deployed nearly 6,770 doses of rabies vaccine (reaching 96.7%), 4,550 doses of lumpy skin disease vaccine (reaching 91%), 372,028 doses of avian influenza vaccine (reaching over 99%). In particular, when an epidemic occurs, it organizes vaccination for all poultry in the commune with the epidemic and the communes under threat. In addition, the district also strictly organizes the monitoring system to promptly detect, report, manage and control epidemics from farmers in villages, residential groups to the veterinary system. Thanks to that, up to now, most of the epidemics in livestock have been controlled.

According to the provincial Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, in the first 6 months of the year, the livestock sector continued to face a number of difficulties and challenges due to the impact of market prices, especially diseases. In particular, in addition to the avian influenza epidemic that appeared at the beginning of the year, African swine fever continued to recur sporadically in some localities. In this situation, the Department advised the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to establish working groups to directly inspect and urge the work of disease prevention and control, handling and destroying sick and suspected sick animals, organizing vaccination, spraying disinfectants to quickly control and contain the disease, not allowing new outbreaks to occur.

As of mid-June 2024, the whole province had vaccinated more than 2 million poultry against Avian Influenza (95.6% of the plan), nearly 30,700 buffaloes and cows against Lumpy Skin Disease (88.7% of the plan); 675 animals against Foot and Mouth Disease and nearly 48,500 dogs and cats against Rabies (91.5% of the plan).

Along with vaccination, the specialized sector also promotes information and propaganda to raise people's awareness and responsibility about the risk of disease outbreaks and measures to prevent and control diseases, and ensure biosafety in livestock farming; build and expand disease-free livestock farming facilities and areas. Deploy peak periods of general cleaning, disinfection, and environmental decontamination. Regularly and proactively take samples to monitor the circulation of disease-causing viruses... Thanks to drastic and synchronous solutions, the livestock and poultry epidemic situation in the province is basically under control, and livestock farming is developing well.

According to statistics, in the first 6 months of the year, the total herd of pigs, buffaloes, goats, and poultry all increased compared to the same period in 2023, with the strongest increase being in poultry, currently reaching 6.49 million heads, an increase of 2.9%. The output of fresh meat is estimated at nearly 35 thousand tons, an increase of 4.7%.

Despite the positive results, the complicated development of animal diseases across the country, combined with the unusual weather and high temperatures as at present, is a favorable environment for diseases to break out and spread among livestock. Therefore, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development recommends that livestock farmers proactively monitor closely, increase nutrition, vaccinate against diseases, regularly disinfect and clean barns; in particular, it is necessary to immediately notify the authorities and local authorities when detecting diseases in livestock.

Nguyen Luu