Influenza prevention for poultry flocks to serve the needs of the Lunar New Year

After selling the second batch of chickens of the year, Mr. Pham Hong Vinh's family (Hamlet 9, Nghi Truong Commune, Nghi Loc District) continued to clean the barn, spray disinfectant, and sterilize to raise more than 7,000 broiler chickens to serve the market during the holiday season.Lunar New Yearcoming soon. With 7 years of experience in raising chickens, in order to have products to sell during Tet, Vinh's family bought chickens to release in October. Especially, this is the time of changing seasons, many types of seasonal flu arise, so before releasing them, Vinh had to reinforce the barn, cover the surrounding area with tarpaulin, and when the temperature drops too low, he had to burn coal to warm the chickens.

Mr. Vinh said: Before being released, the breeding chickens are all checked for health and vaccinated to prevent diseases.pandemicAt the same time, his family also dug a disinfection pit in the farm area and sprinkled lime powder to prevent disease around the farm area. According to Vinh, during the Lunar New Year, many items increased in price, so the price of chicken was about 20% higher than usual. Therefore, if well cared for, the Tet chickens will bring high income.

Poultry farmers inject and vaccinate their poultry to prevent disease. Photo: Tien Dong

Nghi Truong commune currently has 21 poultry farms, concentrated in 4/5 hamlets, with a total herd of more than 130,000 birds per batch. Faced with the risk of avian influenza, local authorities have also stepped up propaganda to farmers to focus on disease prevention.environmental sanitationlivestock farming to avoid epidemics, causing great economic damage.

In Dien Chau, in 2021, the total poultry herd of the whole district reached 1,318,286. Of which, the most concentrated in Dien Trung with 217,643 birds, Dien Truong 104,698 birds. Mr. Tran Van Dung - Chairman of Dien Trung Commune People's Committee said: Currently, the whole commune has 100 chicken farms, raising 3 batches per year, each batch from 8,000-30,000 birds/farm, concentrated in hamlets: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. This year, after the outbreak of avian influenza in hamlets 4 and 5, the commune set up checkpoints to block off the areas where the epidemic occurred, at the same time destroyed the infected chicken flocks and directed the farmers to strengthen disinfection to prevent the spread of the epidemic. After skipping a batch and disinfecting the barns, people were encouraged to raise chickens again.

At this time, many farms are actively increasing and restoring their herds to meet market demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year. Photo: Tien Dong

In 2021, in Dien Trung commune (Dien Chau), an outbreak of Avian Influenza occurred, causing about 1,600 sick and dead poultry to be destroyed. Currently, to meet market demand for the upcoming Tet holiday, localities in Dien Chau district are also focusing on repopulating and proactively dealing with epidemics, especially influenza types such as H5N1, H5N8...

To serve the Tet market, most households have released new batches of chickens, actively cared for them, and prevented diseases. Before releasing them, households actively injected and dropped influenza vaccines on their poultry flocks, and in cold weather, they increased the warmth.

According to many experts, diseases are likely to develop at this time, so before releasing new batches, households need to fully vaccinate. Photo: Tien Dong

Mr. Ngo Duc Quynh - Deputy Head of Nghe An Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department said: At this time, the weather is often unfavorable, often with severe cold, which is an ideal condition for disease to spread. Therefore, in order to facilitate herd restoration and herd increase, bringing high economic value, localities in the province need to step up propaganda work to livestock households to proactively prevent and control diseases for livestock.

Along with that, it is necessary to assign responsible officers to coordinate with local authorities to closely monitor the epidemic situation; complete the vaccination plan; guide farmers to disinfect, sterilize, and clean barns. Advise people not to re-herd or increase herds massively but to keep them at a level appropriate to the scale of the barns; increase information updates on the market situation of livestock products in and outside the province to be proactive in increasing and decreasing the quantity, ensuring high efficiency in livestock farming.

In 2021, the total poultry herd in the province reached 29 million, an increase of 4.13% compared to 2020. Currently, there are 482 large-scale, concentrated poultry farms, concentrated in the districts of Hung Nguyen, Nghi Loc, Dien Chau, Yen Thanh, Quynh Luu...

People are actively raising new chickens to serve the market during Tet. Photo: Tien Dong

Mr. Quynh also recommended: Before raising a new batch, households also need to choose reputable breed suppliers, need to apply biosafety breeding processes, create quality products, ensure food hygiene and safety. At the same time, strengthen quarantine, slaughter control and veterinary hygiene inspection to ensure a safe food source for consumers during the Lunar New Year of Nham Dan 2022.