A commune in Nghe An is at risk of wiping out its pig herd due to African swine fever.
(Baonghean.vn) - With 1,405 pigs having to be destroyed due to infection in just the past 3 months, Dien Nguyen commune (Dien Chau) is considered the "hottest" spot for African swine fever in Nghe An province.
Risk of wiping out the pig herd
Visiting Dien Nguyen commune (Dien Chau) on a day at the end of September, it is easy to see that this locality is being ravaged by African swine fever, because all the intersections are sprinkled with white lime powder. The epidemic occurred in Dien Nguyen commune since May 24, but has been most severe in the past 2 months, with some days destroying tons of pigs.
Ms. Dao Thi Huong's family in Hamlet 7 had to destroy a sow and 6 piglets at the end of September. Ms. Huong was sad: Her family is a farmer, using surplus food from agricultural by-products to raise a sow for 7 years now. Now they just hope that the epidemic will end soon so that their family can restore the herd.
 |
| African swine fever is attacking pig farms in Dien Nguyen commune, so people here are worried that the local pig herd will be wiped out in the near future. Photo: Xuan Hoang |
Hamlet 7 is an area where many pigs have had to be destroyed, so people here are used to seeing hamlet and commune officials helplessly transport infected pigs to the cemetery for destruction every day.
Mr. Dao Xuan Trung - Head of Hamlet 7, said: The local people's specialty is agriculture, so almost every house has a pig farm, in which raising sows is the main activity.
As of the end of September, there were only 21 households raising pigs in the hamlet, with 48 pigs for meat and 8 sows. Previously, the hamlet had to destroy 247 pigs from 66 households, of which 62 were sows.
 |
| Mr. Cao Hung's family in Hamlet 7, Dien Nguyen Commune sprinkled lime powder to treat the environment in the barn area, after destroying the pigs. Photo: Xuan Hoang |
If the epidemic continues to spread at this rate, the current herd of pigs in the hamlet will soon be wiped out. Currently, the hamlet is propagating and mobilizing households to absolutely not re-herd at a time when the epidemic is complicated. The concern of the people in hamlet 7 is also the common situation of the remaining hamlets in Dien Nguyen commune at present.
Tight control of existing pig herds
Statistics from Dien Nguyen commune show that since the outbreak of African swine fever in the commune (from May 24 to the end of September), Dien Nguyen has destroyed 1,405 pigs weighing over 73.5 tons, belonging to 243 households. According to Mr. Dam Xuan Chinh - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, the number of destroyed pigs accounts for nearly half of the commune's pig herd before the epidemic.
To strictly control the local pig herd while the epidemic is spreading rapidly, from September 22, the commune assigned hamlets to count and review the existing pig herd. By the end of September, the whole commune had only more than 1,000 pigs left. Any households that deliberately re-herd at this time will be handled by the commune according to the provisions of the veterinary law.
The commune has used up to 9 tons of lime powder (of which the district provided 3 tons), not to mention pig farmers who proactively bought lime to prevent disease, along with over 100 liters of chemicals. The commune has allocated its budget to buy thousands of meters of tarpaulin, hired hundreds of excavator shifts to dig holes to destroy the pigs; mobilized hundreds of people to participate in the checkpoints...
 |
| Dien Nguyen Commune still maintains quarantine checkpoints on the roads. Photo: Xuan Hoang |
Mr. Dam Xuan Chinh is concerned: African swine fever has been raging in the locality since June, especially since the floods in early September, the outbreak has become more severe, there are days when pigs from 2-3 families have to be destroyed. If this continues, the total number of pigs in the commune will easily be wiped out by the African swine fever pandemic.
According to Mr. Chinh, the cause of the outbreak in Dien Nguyen commune may be due to rain, waste from pig farms flowing with the water, causing the virus to spread to other households; or due to animals such as rats, cats, etc. transmitting the virus from one household to another.
Mr. Chinh also admitted that there was human subjectivity, because most people raised pigs in small-scale areas in makeshift barns, which did not ensure disease prevention. Local disease prevention and control work was sometimes negligent and subjective, causing the virus to spread widely. Now the epidemic has broken out far and wide, and neighboring communes are also experiencing strong outbreaks, so the epidemic control work is even more difficult and complicated.
 |
| Mr. Dao Xuan Trung - head of hamlet 7 said that the pig farms of the people are basically makeshift so they are very susceptible to disease transmission. Photo: Xuan Hoang |
Mr. Nguyen Trong Bon - Head of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Station of Dien Chau district said that since the beginning of September, African swine fever has re-emerged strongly in the district, mostly in the communes of Dien Thai, Dien Nguyen, Dien Thang, Dien Dong, Dien Binh, Dien Cat, Dien Minh, Dien Quang, Dien Xuan... There were days when Dien Chau destroyed dozens of tons of pigs. The "hottest" commune was Dien Nguyen, because it had the largest number of households that had to destroy pigs.
According to the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, African swine fever is currently complicated in some communes in Dien Chau, Yen Thanh, Do Luong, Nam Dan, Quynh Luu, and Hung Nguyen districts. Dien Nguyen commune (Dien Chau) is identified as the "hot spot" of the epidemic, because this locality has the largest number of pigs that have to be destroyed among the 170 communes that have had the epidemic for less than 30 days now.
