Disease takes almost 10% of country’s swine
By Jonathan Martin
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Vietnam has culled almost three million pigs to stop the spread of African swine fever (ASF), bringing the total up to nearly 10 per cent of its herd.
Authorities culled hundreds of pigs at Phu Son Farm this week, which houses more than 18,000 heads, Reuters reports.
Vietnam first detected ASF in February. The disease has since spread to 60 of the country’s 63 provinces, state publication Tienphong said Tuesday.
Reports out of the Asian nation describe “(dead) pigs floating in rivers.”
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) advised Vietnam to declare the outbreak a national emergency in March, but officials said they have no plans to do so last week because the disease is not dangerous to humans.
Vietnam’s government is controlling the movement of pigs and pig products from ASF-affected areas and is subsidizing up to 30 per cent of pig farmers’ losses.
The feds deployed military personnel to help farmers “organize the timely destruction of sick pigs,” Nguy?n Xuân Cu?ng, Vietnam’s deputy agriculture minister said.
So far, Vietnam has destroyed more than two times the number of infected pigs China has culled, despite finding its first infection six months later than China.
ASF is infecting swine in China, Vietnam, Georgia, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Belgium and many countries in Africa.
Researchers from uninfected nations, like Canada and the United States, are sharing their work to prevent the virus’s spread.
So far, North American farmers have not reported any cases.