He was speaking at an online conference held in Hanoi onSeptember 14 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to seek waysto prevent animal diseases for this year’s fall and winter.
Requesting that cities and provinces nationwidestrengthen inspection to detect hotbeds of diseases on poultry and livestock earlyon and prevent them from spreading, Dung underscored the importance of propervaccinations for animals and the provision of prevention guidelines at locallevels.
As there is no vaccine or cure for ASF, the mosteffective measure at present is to actively prevent it from entering thecountry, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha CongTuan.
To do this, relevant ministries and agencies need totighten control on the transportation of pork and its products, as well as promotesafe pig farming, he added.
ASF is a type of infectious hemorrhagic fever which resultsin a 90-100 percent mortality rate for pigs. Although the disease is notdangerous to humans, it can cause great economic losses for farmers and harmpork trading.
It is spread from pig to pig through various ways,including animal feed contaminated with the pathogen, carriers such as ticks,or direct contact between infected pigs and healthy ones.
From the end of 2017 through to September 10, 17 countries and regions inEurope and Asia such as China and Estonia have had ASF outbreaks, with over560,000 pigs culled, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health(OIE).
From the start of August to September 10, China reported 14 outbreaks in sixprovinces, with 38,000 pigs culled, according to the OIE and the UN Food andAgriculture Organisation (FAO). The disease is moving southward towards provincesnear Vietnam.
There is a risk of ASF virus being brought into Vietnamthrough smuggling and the transportation of pork and pork products with unclearorigin which is quite popular in northern border provinces.
It is vital to protect pig farms from the virus byfostering biosafety and intensify pasteurisation in farms, said Ken Inui fromthe FAO.
Inui suggested the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment promptly draw up an emergency response plan and raise publicawareness of the disease. He also urged for an immediate ban on the illegaltrading of pigs from China to Vietnam.–VNA