Controlling blue ear disease

(Baonghean) - On the morning of October 19, the authorities vaccinated the epidemic area of ​​Hung My commune (Hung Nguyen) and some hamlets of 5 surrounding communes with blue ear disease. On the afternoon of October 18, Hung Nguyen district received 2,000 doses of blue ear disease vaccine from the reserve source of the provincial Veterinary Department.

Standing in front of the empty barn that had been spread with lime, Mr. Ho Trung Thong, hamlet 8, Hung My commune - the epicenter of the outbreak of blue ear disease this time, said: Luckily, we had just sold a batch, so when the epidemic broke out, there were only 10 pigs left in my family's farm, weighing about 65 kg each. 5-6 days ago, when I saw the pigs stop eating, I went to the veterinary pharmacy to buy medicine to inject, thinking that the pigs had a common cold, not thinking about blue ear disease. After 6 days of injection, the pigs did not get better, and seeing that the surrounding households were also starting to have sick pigs, I informed the commune veterinary staff... The 10 pigs were in the stage of strong development, if they were not sick, they would be sold in only 15-20 days...

In hamlet 8, Hung My commune, many other families suffered greater losses, of which Mr. Tran Van Chau's farm suffered the greatest loss with over 30 pigs weighing over 2 tons of meat having to be destroyed...

Lime is spread in front of the gates of the collective farms in Hung My commune.

On the afternoon of October 18, Hung Nguyen district received 2,000 doses of blue ear vaccine from the reserve source of the provincial Veterinary Department. The next morning, vaccination was carried out simultaneously in the entire Hung My commune and the threatened hamlets of the 5 communes adjacent to Hung My: Town, Hung Tan, Hung Phuc, Hung Thinh and Hung Thang.

At Mr. Le Dinh Truong's family farm, hamlet 7, Hung My commune, the herd of 8 sows and 53 pigs were vaccinated on the morning of October 19. According to Mr. Truong, his family's pig farm only vaccinates twice a year and mainly only vaccinates against anthrax.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Head of the Veterinary Department of Hung My Commune, said: In just the morning, with 4 veterinarians and the support of hamlet chiefs and militia forces, 4 hamlets of Hung My Commune have completed vaccination and will try to complete it today (October 20); the total herd of pigs in the commune is 1,000, and basically all have been vaccinated. In the commune, there is no market or slaughterhouse, so currently, in addition to implementing vaccination, Hung My has focused on spraying disinfectants, mobilizing forces to block 24/24 hours at 3 main checkpoints and 1 sub-checkpoint on the roads in and out of the commune to prevent pigs and food from pigs from entering and leaving the epidemic area. In addition, households have also bought lime powder to spread in barn areas, house gates and walkways to prevent epidemics.

Vaccination against blue ear disease at a pig farm in hamlet 8, Hung My commune.

The Provincial Veterinary Department has also provided 252 liters of Bencocid chemicals to spray disinfectants in the epidemic area and surrounding areas. According to Mr. Tran Ngoc Tu, Epidemiology Department - Provincial Veterinary Department, through statistics of the total herd, the number of pigs that need to be vaccinated is 1,740, the number of vaccines provided is for immediate vaccination when necessary. Injecting PRRS vaccine directly into the epidemic area needs to be done as soon as possible to calculate the effective time because after two days of injection, pigs that have incubated the pathogen will develop symptoms so that they can be handled promptly; as for pigs that have not been infected with the pathogen, the medicine will take effect after 7 days and after 15 days will have certain immunity.

“The biggest difficulty in disease prevention today is the short breeding time and high vaccine price (44,000 VND/dose), so people are still careless in vaccinating against the disease. In some places, there is almost no vaccination for blue ear disease, even in concentrated breeding farms,” said Mr. Tran Ngoc Tu.

Along with the urgent organization of vaccination, measures to prevent blue ear disease in pigs in Hung Nguyen are still being urgently deployed such as checkpoints to prevent pigs and pork products from entering and leaving the epidemic area; propaganda on the loudspeaker system about the disease situation and preventive measures...

Article and photos:Phu Huong