African swine fever is difficult to control in Ky Son due to the habit of raising free-range pigs.

On the morning of May 23, Mr. Nguyen Cong Hieu - Head of the Veterinary Station of Ky Son district said that another outbreak of African swine fever had appeared in the district in Huu Kiem. The disease is complicated due to the custom of letting pigs roam freely, making quarantine very difficult.

Previously, in the border commune of Muong Tip, nearly 30 pigs died from African swine fever with 964 kg of pigs destroyed and buried.

Pigs infected with the disease were destroyed. Photo: Lu Phu

To properly destroy the large number of dead pigs, the People's Committee of Ky Son district mobilized excavators to dig holes for destruction. The Muong Tip commune government established many epidemic prevention teams, such as a data statistics team, 6 destruction teams stationed in 6 villages with the epidemic to directly guide the destruction techniques and record the number of pigs and their weight. At the same time, the commune also set up 2 checkpoints in Ta Do and Pha Noi villages.

Mr. Luong Xuan Lieu - Secretary of Ta Do village Party cell, Muong Tip commune, said: "On May 22, the village had 10 more pigs of the people die, the dead pigs were mainly piglets, weighing from 80 - 120 kg, some were worth up to 10 million VND, this time the people suffered heavy losses. The main income of the people is only waiting for selling young pigs, black pigs, but now they are all dead, some families are left empty-handed".

Authorities deploy measures to contain the epidemic. Photo: Lu Phu

Discussing the difficulties in preventing and fighting African swine fever, Mr. Ha Ba Thai - Chairman of the People's Committee of Muong Tip commune, Ky Son district said: Although the State has a policy of supporting 33 thousand VND/kg of dead pigs that have been destroyed, the actual market price of local black pigs is 3 times higher, at 100 thousand VND/kg.