Throwing dead pigs into the environment, risk of widespread outbreaks

Dead pigs are still dumped in the river.

African swine feveris a dangerous infectious disease caused by a virus, currently there is no vaccine or specific treatment. This is one of the reasons why the disease can break out again at any time. Therefore, in addition to ensuring the principles of disease prevention, the destruction of pigs infected with the disease must also be carried out seriously.

Recently, African swine fever has recurred in some localities, forcing local authorities to destroy a large number of infected pigs. Photo: TD

However, in reality there are still cases of dead pigs being thrown directly into the environment, rivers, and lakes.

On the morning of March 17, on the Lam River, passing through Boi Son Commune (Do Luong), local people were "shocked" when they discovered a large pig carcass floating on the river. It is worth mentioning that this locality is experiencing a recurrence of African swine fever. Mr. Hung, a local resident, said that although he did not know where the dead pigs were thrown from, in the context of the current recurrence of African swine fever, there were people who lacked awareness.throw dead pigs into the riveris condemnable.

Dead pigs were thrown into Lam River, passing through Boi Son commune (Do Luong), on the morning of March 17. Photo: TD

In Do Luong alone, as of March 16, 2021, there are still 6 communes: Luu Son, Xuan Son, Hien Son, Dai Son, Nam Son, Minh Son with 23 households in 13 hamlets having the epidemic and 75 infected pigs.

Mr. Tran Ngoc Thuan - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Do Luong district said that according to regulations, if a pig dies, whether sick or not, it must be destroyed by burial. Cases of dumping dead pigs into the environment will be handled. The difficulty is to catch them red-handed and determine where the dead pigs are dumped before handling them. This requires people's awareness of environmental protection and disease prevention to be raised. Otherwise, the disease will easily break out again, causing great damage to the livestock industry.

In 2020, the province destroyed 7,688 pigs, weighing 419,988 kg. In the first months of 2021, 1,031 pigs were destroyed, with a total weight of 55,334 kg.

Small-scale livestock farming has a high risk of disease recurrence.

According to local assessments, this outbreak of African swine fever mainly occurs in small-scale farms, where disease prevention measures and selection of breeding animals are not strictly implemented.

In Thanh Chuong district, from January 1 to March 16, 2021, African swine fever occurred in 67 households, in 26 villages and hamlets of 13 communes. After the disease recurred, local authorities were forced to destroy 265 pigs, with a total weight of 17,959 kg.

After discovering a dead pig, authorities will come down to inspect and take samples. Photo: PV

Mr. Nguyen Van Quan - Chairman of Thanh Thinh Commune People's Committee, one of the localities with a large number of outbreaks, said that currently, the whole commune has 40 households with more than 100 infected pigs. The most difficult thing in disease prevention and control is that farmers still do not have the right awareness of the harmful effects of the disease. Not to mention that the area is large with many routes passing through, especially Ho Chi Minh Highway, so many traders take advantage of the low price of pigs in the area to buy and sell them elsewhere, even importing uninspected breeding pigs to sell to farmers.

When a farm is found to have pigs infected with African swine fever, in addition to destroying them, it is necessary to spray disinfectant around the barn area to prevent the disease from spreading widely. Photo: PV

Not only in Thanh Chuong district, in Dien Chau district, by March 19, 11 communes had discovered a recurrence of African swine fever, including: Minh Chau, Dien Phu, Dien Tho, Dien Loc, Dien Nguyen, Dien Cat, Dien Tan, Dien Dong, Dien Thai, Dien Lam, Dien Loi, and currently had to destroy 158 pigs.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Bon - Director of Dien Chau Agricultural Service Center said: Because people often import livestock of unknown origin, floating on the market to raise, it is very easy to spread the disease. Although there is no vaccine to prevent African swine fever, if the livestock are vaccinated against traditional diseases when purchased, it will contribute to creating immunity for livestock. However, many households have not taken precautions, leading to weak resistance, when encountering the devastating African swine fever virus, they are not strong enough to resist.

People need to sprinkle lime powder and thoroughly disinfect before re-raising new pigs. Photo: PV

Regarding the destruction of infected pigs, Mr. Bon said that currently the method is to destroy only the sick pigs, not the entire herd as before.

Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee shared: After Tet, people re-raised pigs but disinfection measures have not been given due attention. Not to mention that at this time, the weather is changing seasons, the disease spreads through many ways such as food, drinking water, transportation, slaughter... Therefore, if strict measures are not applied from the stage of selecting breeds, cleaning barns, even destroying dead pigs, infected pigs, it may cause African swine fever to break out on a large scale.