Controlling blue ear disease

(Baonghean) - On the morning of October 19, functional forces vaccinated blue ear disease in the epidemic area of ​​Hung My commune (Hung Nguyen) and some hamlets of 5 surrounding communes. 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 limed, 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, my family's farm had only 10 pigs weighing about 65 kg each. 5-6 days ago, seeing 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, seeing that the surrounding households also started to have sick pigs, so 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. There is no market or slaughterhouse in the commune, so currently, in addition to vaccination, Hung My has focused on disinfecting and mobilizing forces to block 24/7 at 3 main checkpoints and 1 secondary 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 barns, gates and walkways to prevent the epidemic.

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 additional vaccines provided are for immediate vaccination when necessary. The vaccination of blue ear disease 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 been incubating 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 thousand VND/dose), so people are still careless in vaccinating against the disease. In some places, there are almost no vaccinations 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 epidemic situation and preventive measures...

Article and photos:Phu Huong