Nghe An: Hundreds of tons of pigs destroyed in Thanh Chuong district due to disease

Mr. Nguyen Van Niem in Linh Truong hamlet, Thanh Linh commune (Thanh Chuong) regularly sprinkles lime powder to prevent epidemics for his family's pigs. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Every day there are infected pigs.

Present in Thanh Linh commune on a day at the end of March, when the "heat" of the diseaseAfrican swine feverThe situation here is getting worse and worse. "Hot" because, almost every day the local pig culling team has to work hard to carry dead pigs to be destroyed. There are families who cull 8 pigs at once, causing losses of tens of millions of dong.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dan - Military Commander of Thanh Linh commune said that he is the core force of the locality in the work of destroying epidemic pigs, so every morning he has to arrange forces to go.pig culling, regardless of sun or rain, because if left for too long the pig will rot and the disease will spread.

"Small pigs are fine, but when we meet sows weighing 100 to 200 kg, it's extremely difficult, it takes 4-6 people to lift them onto the truck" - Mr. Dan shared.

Coming to Linh Truong village, Thanh Linh commune at noon, despite the hot weather, many households still sprinkle lime powder in front of their gates. Mr. Nguyen Van Niem said that his family is currently raising 130 pigs. When the pigs in the village were infected with the disease, he proactively bought a ton of lime powder to sprinkle around the barn and in front of the gate to disinfect the house to prevent people from entering and bringing the disease to his house.

The number of pigs that must be destroyed due to disease in Thanh Chuong district is increasing. Photo: Quang An

"The pigs are a big asset of the family, so when African swine fever broke out in the locality, the family was very worried. There was no other way but to protect the pigs by regularly sprinkling lime powder and spraying disinfectants. If the pigs were infected, the family would lose tens of millions of dong."

Mr. Nguyen Van Niem, Linh Truong hamlet, Thanh Linh commune

According to Mr. Nguyen Truong Tam - Chairman of Thanh Linh Commune People's Committee, African swine fever has re-emerged in the district since February; in the commune alone, it has spread to 6/6 villages of the commune, with people reporting sick and dead pigs almost every day. The total number of pigs destroyed by the end of March 30 was over 6 tons. Therefore, the locality currently considers African swine fever prevention as the top priority.

In addition to setting up 3 epidemic control posts, there is also a mobile control team that regularly patrols to prevent people from transporting pigs in and out of the area. This March, the patrol team discovered 3 cases of transporting pigs in and out of the epidemic area, and the commune imposed an administrative fine of 3.5 million VND.

In Thanh Tung commune, African swine fever also recurred in the last days of March. Mr. Phan Van Dung - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee is worried that while the commune's conditions are still difficult, the epidemic recurs. However, the commune also arranges forces and resources to serve the epidemic prevention work in the most urgent way. "Pig farming is one of the main sources of income for farmers, so if the pigs cannot be protected, many families will have to destroy the entire herd, causing losses of tens of millions of dong; the local socio-economic situation will also be affected" - Mr. Phan Van Dung is worried.

Causes of the outbreak

Report of the People's CommitteeThanh Chuong districtshows that since January 1, 2021, African swine fever has re-emerged in the district, but has spread most strongly since February. As of March 30, African swine fever has occurred in 658 households, in 84 villages and hamlets of 32/38 communes, with more than 143 tons of dead and destroyed pigs.

Sows weighing hundreds of kilograms died due to an epidemic in Thanh Linh commune. Photo: Quang An

Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee said: Immediately after the African swine fever epidemic recurred in the district, the District People's Committee has strengthened the epidemic prevention steering committee from district to commune. Accordingly, the "4 on-site" motto has been implemented by the communes.

According to Mr. Thanh, the reason for the strong outbreak of African swine fever in the district is that the district mainly has small-scale livestock farming, making it difficult to apply disease prevention and biosecurity measures in livestock farming.

When an epidemic occurs, it is not reported to the local authorities or veterinary agencies for handling, causing difficulties in disease prevention and causing economic losses to livestock farmers. Unstable weather causes water sources, manure, and waste to spread into the environment, through canals, ditches, ponds, and lakes, which is also the cause of the spread of the epidemic.

Since the outbreak, the district has requested the province to provide thousands of liters of disinfectant chemicals to communes for disinfection spraying. Communes with epidemics use their reserve budget to buy more supplies, tools, etc. to serve the work of destroying pigs and preventing epidemics. Farmers proactively buy lime powder to sprinkle around the area around the barns and in front of the house gates.

However, the biggest challenge now is that some people are still not aware of the epidemic prevention work. That is, traveling in epidemic areas; there are cases of dumping dead pigs into rivers and streams, from which the disease spreads widely.

Difficulties pile up when localities no longer have teams.veterinaryAt the commune level, the work of taking samples for testing and diagnosing sick pigs is very inadequate. Many communes cannot hire people to vaccinate for the spring crop. Meanwhile, the district veterinary force is thin and cannot respond to the current strong outbreak of disease in the district. This is a major obstacle for localities in the current work of preventing African swine fever.

"In the coming time, the weather will change seasons; disinfection work will not be carried out regularly; livestock farming will rarely apply biosafety measures; diseases will spread through many ways such as food, drinking water, transportation, slaughter... Therefore, the risk of the epidemic continuing to spread and break out on a large scale in the coming time is very high."

Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee

Thanh Chuong district has the largest pig herd in the province, with about 110 thousand pigs. Therefore, the "hottest" issue for the locality at present is to prevent African swine fever, minimize damage to people, and reduce budget costs for localities.