Solutions to support disease surveillance

(Baonghean) - In recent years, our province has been one of the key areas in the country for the occurrence of many dangerous diseases such as avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), swine fever, and African swine fever, leading to a large number of sick and dead livestock. Fundraising for vaccination in many localities is being evaluated as a proactive approach and an effective solution to support disease surveillance in livestock.

Our province has a vast territory, with many national highways passing through it, and numerous large cattle markets such as: Ú Market (Đô Lương), Dinh Market (Yên Thành), Nam Nghĩa Market (Nam Đàn)... In particular, there are many livestock and poultry collection and transit facilities. This is one of the main reasons for the spread and transmission of diseases. In the last three years, Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) has occurred in 15 districts and 56 communes, resulting in the culling of over 96 cattle and 324 sick and dead pigs. African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks have occurred in 19 districts and 169 communes, resulting in the culling of over 31,000 pigs. Avian influenza outbreaks have occurred in 23 districts and 83 communes, forcing the culling of over 114,000 poultry. Many large-scale outbreaks have occurred, such as FMD and ASF outbreaks in Anh Sơn, Tân Kỳ, Đô Lương, and Yên Thành. The lack of timely monitoring and reporting of outbreaks has made disease control difficult. Vaccination efforts have not been intensified, leading to prolonged disease control periods and a significant number of livestock and poultry being culled.

However, according to Mr. Nguyen Huu Minh, Deputy Head of the Livestock Department of the Department of Agriculture, in recent years, disease surveillance has improved, with the level of attention in localities increasing year after year.

Coordination between veterinary forces and local organizations and associations has been strengthened. Several districts have implemented timely disease surveillance and reporting, and decisively directed efforts, thus limiting the spread of disease, such as Hung Nguyen, Nghi Loc, Tan Ky, Thai Hoa, and Yen Thanh... In particular, the three major livestock-producing districts of Dien Chau, Nam Dan, and Do Luong, under the provincial direction, implemented the "pilot project for daily management and surveillance of livestock and poultry diseases in the period 2013-2015," which implemented a daily disease reporting system and mobilized the entire political system to participate when outbreaks occurred. According to Mr. Minh, given the difficulties in providing state funding for disease prevention and control for livestock and poultry, organizing disease surveillance is even more challenging. However, many localities in the province have adopted flexible and proactive approaches, building up effective vaccination and livestock support funds.

Do Luong District has over 44,000 cattle and buffaloes, 107,000 pigs, and over 1.5 million poultry and waterfowl, with over 300 farms and smallholdings, 87 of which meet the standards of Circular 27 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The transportation and slaughter of livestock in the area are quite complex. The rapid restocking of livestock creates many difficulties in disease surveillance. Meanwhile, the public's disregard for vaccination makes disease monitoring challenging. For many years, the District People's Committee has issued a document encouraging communes to proactively raise funds for vaccination through a scheme of collecting money in rice from each livestock farming household. Each household contributes 8-10 kg of rice per year, with the price of rice calculated according to current state regulations.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga from Hamlet 6, Trung Son, said: "Every year, regardless of whether a household raises a lot or a little livestock, they all contribute 8kg of rice per household (at the same time as submitting the product), equivalent to about 40,000 VND per year. Previously, we didn't want to get vaccinated, but since we've already paid, now the vaccination process is completely outsourced to the veterinary officers. Every household with livestock receives thorough vaccinations." In Hoa Son commune, the vaccination fund collection rate is standardized at 8,000 VND per animal. Each year, the commune collects around 30 million VND from this fund. The commune also allocates a portion of its budget to support vaccination for households raising 20 or more animals, and provides 30-70% of the vaccination costs for large livestock farms.

Thanks to these efforts, the average annual vaccination rate in Do Luong has risen from only 49% of the target (in 2000) to the top of the province, reaching over 85% of the target. Many types of vaccines, such as swine fever and hemorrhagic septicemia vaccines, have achieved over 95% of the vaccination target. Notably, Tru Son, Hien Son, My Son, and Dai Son have seen a "record" increase in livestock vaccination rates, rising from 5% to nearly 90% of the target. The rate of disease outbreaks in the district has significantly decreased across all five criteria: the number of communes experiencing outbreaks decreased from 10 to 3 (during the outbreak season); the number of hamlets and households with outbreaks decreased sharply; the weight of livestock and poultry culled decreased to 1/10 of a ton; and the time from outbreak to containment has decreased from 1 month to 10-13 days.

With the implementation of this fundraising, Dien Chau district has Resolution No. 06/NQ-HĐND (2010) on including vaccination fees for livestock in the commune's revenue collection plan. The purpose of the resolution is to focus on veterinary work and proactively vaccinate livestock against diseases.

Mr. Chu Van Bo, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Dien Lam commune, said: "As a mountainous area with great potential for hilly land, the commune's motto is to maintain and encourage people to increase the total number of livestock. Every year, the commune collects 10,000 VND per livestock farming household. With 2,700 livestock farming households, the commune can mobilize approximately 27 million VND. Accordingly, the commune focuses on effectively monitoring diseases, vaccinating livestock, and providing support for veterinary officers at a rate of 0.4% per month, equivalent to 400,000 VND per person per month. With clearly defined rights and responsibilities, veterinary officers have coordinated and done a good job in monitoring the total herd, vaccinating against diseases, ensuring food safety and hygiene, controlling livestock and poultry slaughter, and restocking."

Mr. Nguyen Trong Bon, Head of the Dien Chau Veterinary Station, said: The fundraising plan based on livestock farming households has been implemented in the communes with self-balancing levels ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 VND per household per year. Currently, 20 out of 39 communes in the district have implemented the fundraising plan in accordance with Resolution 06/NQ-HĐND. Typical examples include Dien Van, Dien Nguyen, Dien Thang, Dien Thanh, Dien Hung, etc. Thanks to this, in 2012 and the spring of 2013, the vaccination rate for cattle and buffalo cholera vaccines, swine cholera vaccines, and swine fever vaccines reached 102-236% compared to the vaccination target for the same period in 2011. Disease outbreaks were minor and isolated, without widespread outbreaks like in previous years.

Along with Do Luong and Dien Chau, many communes in Yen Thanh, Ky Son, and Nghi Loc districts also implemented fundraising plans for vaccination. In the mountainous district of Tan Ky, in 2010, the District People's Committee issued a plan to "establish a livestock vaccination fund." Currently, 7 out of 22 communes have organized vaccination funds, with contributions ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 VND per household per year. Thanks to this, the district proactively provides funding to support veterinary work in Nghia Dung, Ky Son, Nghia Hop, Tan Xuan, Tan Huong, etc.

Although fundraising solutions for vaccination have not been widely implemented in many localities, those that have been implemented have been documented and received the agreement and consensus of people in villages and hamlets. This also strengthens the management of vaccination, leading to a high vaccination rate for livestock and mitigating risks in animal husbandry. Mr. Nguyen Cong Chau, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Do Luong district, said: Fundraising for vaccination in communes is considered a stepping stone to better disease surveillance. In reality, communes that have established stable annual vaccination funds have better disease surveillance, more active and dedicated local veterinary staff, and faster and more timely detection and control of outbreaks.

The task of monitoring and reporting disease outbreaks is the responsibility of local authorities and grassroots veterinary services. However, in reality, in some communes, the monitoring, detection, and reporting of disease outbreaks from livestock farmers, village heads, and veterinarians to the commune People's Committee and veterinary station have been slow. In many places, the authorities even conceal outbreaks. Even some self-employed veterinary officers hide outbreaks to treat patients. In key livestock farming areas, grassroots veterinary officers lack proper compensation and have quit their jobs. Mountainous districts lack veterinary personnel… These shortcomings are hindering the monitoring and protection of livestock and poultry herds.

Although fundraising for vaccination is an effective solution, according to Mr. Dang Van Minh, Deputy Head of the Provincial Veterinary Department, if the fundraising plan is not accurately reflected in the situation and lacks good forecasting and prediction, it is very easy for the fund to be insufficient to cover the required number of vaccines when the total herd size increases. In fact, some localities have had to allocate budget funds to cover losses multiple times (in Do Luong), thus jeopardizing the sustainability of the fund. Therefore, it is essential to first accurately determine the total herd size, the vaccination registration rate, and establish a reasonable contribution amount to avoid a situation where all livestock farmers, regardless of size, contribute the same amount. In particular, the plan and methods need to be flexible depending on fluctuations in the total herd size and vaccine prices on the market.

Luong Mai