Don't be subjective with African swine fever

Farmers need to raise awareness of disease prevention.

At this time, pig farmers in the province are preparing to produce for the Tet market. Therefore, the demand for buying, selling and transporting pigs also increases, leading to many risks of disease outbreaks and infections in pigs in particular and livestock in general. In particular, African swine fever (ASF). Therefore, farmers need to be careful when restocking, raise awareness, and proactively implement disease prevention measures to protect livestock.

The risk of disease outbreak remains.

According to the agricultural sector, currently, ASF is developing very complicatedly. In Vinh Long province, since the beginning of the year, 7 ASF outbreaks have been detected.

Having just had to destroy more than 50 pigs raised for 15 days, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Bao (Vung Liem district) said: “Near Tet, I saw that the price of pigs had increased, so I bought pigs to raise. After building a new barn, I immediately looked for piglets. I listened to an acquaintance's recommendation, saying that the piglets were my own, I went to see the barn, and saw that all the pigs were healthy. I ordered more than 50 pigs, the seller promised to deliver the pigs in 3 times and the transaction was via Zalo.

The first few days the pigs were healthy, but after only 10-15 days, they gradually died, 4-5 pigs a day. After that, I reported to the local authorities. The authorities and the local authorities sent staff to collect samples for testing, the results were positive for DTHCP. Now I have to spray disinfectant, and I will raise them again after Tet. This is a big lesson for me when I bought piglets of unknown origin, without clear inspection documents."

According to the Department of Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Medicine and Aquaculture (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development), the ASF virus survives for a long time in the environment and must be continuously disinfected before re-herding. According to the warning, most pigs in the epidemic area have low vaccination rates, poor biosecurity, and high exposure to the disease.

In addition, a current warning issue is that farmers are impatient to restore their herds, so they buy piglets of unknown origin. When the ASF outbreak occurred, the specialized sector took samples and traced the origin of the outbreak and discovered that farmers bought piglets on social networks, and piglet sales facilities collected piglets from many places to resell.

Ms. Nguyen Huynh Nga - Deputy Head of the Department of Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) said: In the last months of the year, the weather has been unusual. This is also the peak time for pig farms to re-herd and increase their herds to serve the 2025 Lunar New Year market. Accordingly, the demand for buying, selling and transporting has increased, leading to many risks of disease outbreaks and transmission, especially ASF. The province has also seen cases of farmers buying piglets of unknown origin, which poses a risk of disease outbreaks. The veterinary sector recommends that households that have had an outbreak should not rush to re-herd.

Raising awareness of disease prevention

In recent times, the specialized sector has also focused on implementing measures to prevent and control diseases in livestock such as: cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilizing the livestock environment, to destroy pathogens, and monitoring and supervising the disease situation in the area to have timely treatment measures.

According to the veterinary industry, in addition to the involvement of functional sectors, to ensure safety in livestock farming and effectively prevent the spread of pathogens, disease prevention for livestock must be given due attention, in which vaccination and environmental sanitation play a core role, at the same time, farmers need to raise livestock in a biosafety direction.

Raising 40 pigs for Tet, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy (Hieu Phung commune, Vung Liem district) said: “I equip the pigsty with mosquito nets to prevent flies and mosquitoes from entering, do not let strangers into the pigsty, clean the pigsty, disinfect, and sprinkle lime powder regularly. At the same time, I ensure a clean food source and dispose of waste according to regulations. I also pay attention to fully vaccinating the pigs. Thanks to that, my pigs have never had an epidemic for many years.”

Ms. Nguyen Huynh Nga said: There are vaccines to prevent all types of diseases in livestock, farmers should proactively vaccinate fully, in the right dose and at the right time to achieve the best disease prevention effect. Clean the barns and farming tools every day, collect manure and waste in the right place.

Regularly spray disinfectants and sterilize the entire barn and the area around the barn to destroy pathogens; vehicles transporting pigs and food must be thoroughly disinfected each time they enter and exit the barn and the livestock area; strictly control the source of food and vehicles transporting them in and out of the barn and the livestock facility. Before entering the livestock area, all regulations on veterinary hygiene, labor protection, and disinfection must be fully implemented before entering the barn. There must be a disinfection pit at the beginning of each barn; limit visitors and strangers from entering the barn and the livestock area as much as possible.

“In addition, in the current situation of piglet shortage, people must be careful when buying piglets, ensuring that the piglets are healthy and fully vaccinated. People should prioritize buying piglets from reputable piglet suppliers, and when importing piglets, they must comply with quarantine before entering the herd. The veterinary sector is also continuing to strengthen control over the purchase, transportation and slaughter of animals throughout the province; especially tightening the import of livestock into the province, ensuring that the piglets have clear origins, are in good health and are protected from disease according to regulations... to serve the production needs of the people,” Ms. Nga added.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam's total pig herd is currently over 30 million, ranking 6th in the world . Pork also accounts for the majority of the Vietnamese diet. However, the pig farming industry is facing many challenges, including dangerous infectious diseases in pigs, especially ASF. Since ASF appeared in February 2019, Vietnam has destroyed over 6 million pigs. From the beginning of the year to November 25, there have been over 1,500 ASF outbreaks nationwide, in 48 provinces and cities, causing over 88,200 pigs to die and be destroyed.

Article and photos: THAO LY

Source: https://baovinhlong.vn/tin-moi/202412/dung-chu-quan-voi-benh-dich-ta-heo-chau-phi-4f70f6d/