Livestock management: Focus on disease prevention

(Baonghean) - With the largest livestock herd in the country, Nghe An province always pays attention to livestock breed management. However, the untimely intervention of some sectors and local authorities, along with limited awareness of the people, has led to epidemics affecting the productivity and quality of livestock farming.

Floating source of seeds

Thanks to the development of nearly 1,000 Sind crossbred cattle, the annual output of beef for sale in Hung Long commune (Hung Nguyen) is about 50 tons/year, with a revenue of nearly 10 billion VND. To develop the Sind crossbred cattle herd, the commune currently has 5 Sind crossbred bulls for breeding. According to Mr. Pham Minh Tung - Chairman of Hung Long Cooperative, households raising bulls in Hung Long commune are all spontaneous, self-funded, without procedures for buying, selling, quarantine, and breeding, so disease control is difficult. After 1-2 years, the breeding efficiency gradually decreases, households proactively sell beef cattle and replace them with other Sind crossbred cattle.

Foreign pig farm of Mr. Le Anh Tuan in hamlet 14, Linh Son commune (Anh Son).

With the largest livestock herd in the country of nearly 700 thousand buffaloes and cows, more than 1 million pigs and over 17 million poultry, our province is considered to have a fairly rich and diverse livestock breed. Currently, the whole province has over 30 foreign pig breeding facilities with nearly 5 thousand sows, 7 thousand commercial pigs and has established 15 Mong Cai pig breeding points, breeding nearly 3 thousand reserve pigs every year. Regarding artificial insemination (AI), the whole province has developed 58 boar breeding facilities to exploit semen sources, but there are still no centers or facilities for breeding livestock and poultry that meet the scale and quality. Except for some large industrial livestock farms, cooperation with domestic and foreign enterprises can ensure the quality and disease safety of the breed source. The rest, due to the characteristics of household livestock farming accounting for a large proportion (80%), most of the pig, cow and poultry breeds are mainly raised by people themselves, exploited by themselves and consumed locally.

That reality has made the management of breeding quality in the province currently neglected, just a formality, not effective. Mr. Luu Cong Hoa - Head of the Animal Husbandry Department, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, discussed: The work of insemination of pigs and cows is currently competing with the direct-crossing male herd. Currently, there are nearly 80 thousand breeding cows (accounting for 63%) remaining in the population that are being inseminated through direct-crossing. Regarding poultry farming, every year our province uses nearly 16 million poultry of all kinds, the breeding sources are imported from the northern provinces and some small-scale egg production and collection facilities in the province. However, the inspection and supervision of poultry breeding quality is currently a "gap" in breeding management. Along with that, due to subjectivity and fear of cost, farmers deliberately buy cheap, poor quality, unquarantined original breeds for breeding, increasing the risk of spreading and spreading diseases.

Mr. Dang Van Minh - Deputy Head of the Provincial Veterinary Department, said: Since the beginning of the year, there have been 11 outbreaks of avian influenza in 8 districts in the delta region, destroying over 6,000 infected poultry, and some small outbreaks in buffalo, cows, and pigs have occurred abnormally in many districts. Meanwhile, the quarantine and re-inspection of intra-provincial animal transportation has only been carried out in some districts and cities in the province, but is not strict. In early October, through inspection, the specialized inspection team discovered and handled 60 cases of violations in the transportation of animals and animal products, collecting 185 million VND into the budget; of which, 48 cases were violated in districts and cities such as Dien Chau, Vinh City, Yen Thanh, Do Luong, Nam Dan... 12 cases of intra-provincial livestock transportation through epidemic areas were not in accordance with regulations. The Bac Nghe An Quarantine Station (Quynh Luu) has handled 11 cases of transporting 1,900 chicks and over 500 pigs and cattle beyond the station without quarantine certificates. This shows that livestock breed management is still lax in many localities.

Create a safety belt

Livestock breeds are always an important factor to improve productivity, quality and efficiency for farmers.

Livestock breeds are always an important factor in improving productivity, quality and efficiency for livestock farmers, as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat admitted: "It is impossible to improve the output and quality of meat, eggs and milk products if the current situation of manual livestock breeding continues. In addition, the management of livestock breeds is still very loose". Currently, only 17/63 provinces and cities nationwide have completed the restructuring project of the livestock industry (including Nghe An). Many localities are still confused in the restructuring process, not knowing which direction to follow, which step to do first. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is guiding and directing localities to pay attention to the first task of creating and managing breeds, thereby affecting other stages.

On the provincial side, Decision 09/QD-UBND (2012) of the Provincial People's Committee promptly issued a mechanism to support raising foreign pigs of 30 heads or more, 100% of the semen value of buffaloes and cows, 60% of the value of foreign male buffaloes, subsidizing the price of original breeds, supporting 100% of the cost of livestock vaccination for mountainous districts, ensuring support if there are risks after vaccination. Most recently, Decision 50/2014/QD-UBND on "Some policies to support household livestock farming" has created motivation for livestock farmers to access disease-free livestock farming conditions.

However, through discussion with Mr. Ngo Vinh Son - Deputy Director of the Provincial Livestock Breeding Center, the new policies only support the "tip" of the need for breeding sources (support for breeding bulls is only applied to mountainous districts without conditions for TTNT, the policy to support breeding boars is not yet available). Therefore, the province needs to have investment policies, upgrade the quality of breeding boars to exploit semen for TTNT, have policies to subsidize pig semen doses to encourage breeding households to implement TTNT, and at the same time support communes in remote areas to buy crossbred cows to invest in the goal of improving the herd. Currently, the Center is planning to propose the construction of a poultry hatchery with a scale of 5,000 laying hens, contributing to providing local breeding sources to limit the import of foreign breeds, ensuring safety against diseases.

To manage livestock breeds, ensure disease safety, improve productivity and quality of livestock farming, all levels and sectors need to strengthen training and guidance on livestock breed production processes for people; require livestock breed production and trading establishments to complete procedures to obtain quarantine certificates from veterinary agencies; conduct inspections of livestock breed production establishments and classify them for convenient management. Districts need to specify in writing instructions for livestock breeders to comply with the Ordinance on Livestock Breeds according to Circular No. 22 (2009) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on poultry breed quarantine. At the same time, functional sectors need to strengthen inspection, supervision, and strictly handle cases of poor quality breed production, transportation of breeds of unknown origin, without quarantine certificates, and violations of the provisions of the Ordinance on Livestock Breeds, creating a safety belt for livestock herds in the province.

Article and photos:Luong Mai