Prevent African swine fever outbreak

Dien Bien district authorities conduct disinfection spraying to prevent the spread of disease.

The epidemic situation is complicated and tends to increase, the risk of widespread spread is very high. To prevent the outbreak, Dien Bien has been implementing many solutions to prevent and control the spread and outbreak of DTLCP in the whole province.

From April 20 to August 1, ASF occurred in 122 households in 45 villages and hamlets of 10 communes in Dien Bien district. The communes of Thanh Luong, Thanh Chan, Thanh Hung, Thanh Xuong, Thanh Yen, Thanh Nua, Noong Luong, Thanh An, Noong Het, and Hua Thanh all had outbreaks. By the end of August 1, statistics showed that 485 pigs died from ASF with a weight of 25,521 kg. The widespread epidemic has significantly affected livestock development. Faced with this reality, Dien Bien district has established a rapid response team to prevent and control ASF in the area. The members of the rapid response team were assigned specific tasks and coordinated with the People's Committees of the communes to directly inspect, guide, and propagate the work of sanitation and disinfection of the environment, barns, and households in 85/122 outbreaks; continue to inspect and monitor the number of pigs in the remaining 37 outbreaks.

Mr. Chu Van Bach, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dien Bien district, said: In June 2024, Dien Bien district issued Decision 1415/QD-UBND to establish a Rapid Response Team for the prevention and control of ASF, including veterinary experts from the District Agricultural Service Center. Each officer is assigned to be in charge of at least 1 commune. When an outbreak is detected, members of the Rapid Response Team, together with livestock households, are responsible for zoning, monitoring, treating and disinfecting barns and areas where sick livestock are destroyed. After the Rapid Response Team came into operation, the results changed very clearly, many outbreaks were completely handled to prevent widespread spread. Thanks to that, the number of villages and households with new outbreaks in the district has decreased significantly.

People weigh the dead pigs before destroying them to report to the authorities.

Up to this point, some communes in Dien Bien district such as Thanh Xuong, Noong Luong, Noong Het have gone 21 days without any new cases of pigs being infected and destroyed. However, the number of pigs in the district is large (about 53,000), so we cannot be subjective in disease prevention. Meanwhile, the farming methods of the people are still small and subjective, negligent, and do not really pay attention to disease prevention for livestock. Vaccination has not been carried out synchronously by livestock households; the purchase and sale of breeds and livestock materials is free and not strictly managed, pathogens from old outbreaks still exist in barns... These are factors that pose a high risk of re-outbreaks in the communes.

Mr. Pham Van Kien, Director of Dien Bien District Agricultural Service Center, said: In the face of complicated weather conditions leading to a high risk of outbreaks and widespread spread of the disease in the area, the District Agricultural Service Center has coordinated with the People's Committees of communes in the area to strengthen 21/21 Steering Committees for Disease Prevention and Control. Members of the Rapid Response Team for ASF prevention and control regularly inspect, guide, and disseminate environmental sanitation and disinfection work, and pig pens at households in the area. Focus on instructing families to care for and monitor the remaining pigs in the pens, not to organize sales, slaughter, or throw dead pigs into the environment. When pigs show signs of illness or death, immediately notify the People's Committee of the commune and specialized agencies for coordination in handling according to regulations.

Since the beginning of the year, the situation of ASF nationwide in general and Dien Bien province in particular has been quite complicated. In the province, as of July 22, ASF has occurred in 164 households, 63 villages, hamlets of 23 communes, wards in 8 districts, towns and cities (except Muong Ang and Dien Bien Dong districts); with 561 pigs destroyed, total weight 29,651 kg. Proactively implementing ASF prevention and control measures, the authorities of districts, towns and cities have coordinated with specialized agencies to strengthen information and widely disseminate information in many forms about the dangerous nature of ASF to the people. At the same time, they have instructed farmers on disease prevention measures and the effects of ASF vaccination so that people can proactively vaccinate their pigs in the form of socialization. Measures to disinfect and sterilize the barn and surrounding areas, promote bio-safety farming, absolutely do not sell sick pigs, throw dead pigs into the environment... are propagated and instructed for people to apply.

Livestock farmers in Dien Bien district dig holes to destroy pigs that died of disease.

Ms. Chu Thi Thanh Xuan, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: To prevent the outbreak and spread of the disease in the area, the districts with the epidemic, especially many outbreaks such as Dien Bien district, urgently consider declaring the epidemic according to Article 26 of the Law on Veterinary Medicine; direct and mobilize local resources to organize the complete handling of outbreaks according to regulations, not allowing new outbreaks to arise; promptly detect, prevent and strictly handle cases of buying, selling, transporting sick pigs, dumping dead pigs causing the spread of disease and environmental pollution. Direct specialized units and People's Committees at the commune level to review and count the current pig herd in the area and the number of pigs vaccinated against ASF to send to the Department of Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries. Direct the organization to strictly implement the control of pig slaughter in the area according to regulations, strengthen the control of the transportation of pigs and pig products imported into the area to detect and handle violations according to regulations...

The inspection and control of the transportation and trade of animals and animal products, especially pigs and pig products, has been strictly implemented by specialized agencies and local authorities. In the context of a very high risk of disease outbreaks in the province, in addition to the determination of the authorities, livestock farmers and people need to proactively apply measures to clean their barns, proactively report on the status of their livestock, not sell sick pigs, throw dead pigs into the environment and consider when re-herding after the epidemic...

Source: https://baodienbienphu.com.vn/tin-tuc/kinh-te/217264/ngan-chan-dich-ta-lon-chau-phi-bung-phat--