New deal ensures safe pork for HCM City

A veterinary official checks the quality of pork at a slaughter house in My Tho, in the southern province of Tien Giang. — VNA/VN Photo Dinh Hue

HCM CITY — HCM City has signed agreements with three southern provinces to buy healthy pigs from them and prevent further spread of the blue-ear disease through illegal transport of sick pigs.

Under agreements signed last week by the respective Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, the owners of healthy pigs bred on large farms in the provinces of Tien Giang, Long An, and Dong Nai will be issued quarantine certificates and transported by designated vehicles to abattoirs designated by the provinces.

The certificates will not be issued to pig traders who buy from various sources to ensure the loop is fully closed.

Provincial departments will provide the city division daily updates on the status of the epidemic and infected areas.

The city has 29 large abattoirs that slaughter 7,500 to 8,500 pigs daily but only 11 per cent of them are raised in the city while the rest are from outside.

Dong Nai accounts for almost 37 per cent, Ba Ria-Vung Tau for 11 per cent, and Long An and Tien Giang for around 10 per cent each.

Dong Nai leads the country in the number of heads with 1.2 million, half raised on large farms and the rest in more than 40,000 household farms.

Only 15 per cent of Tien Giang's 544,000 pigs are raised on large farms that have more than 100 heads.

The corresponding number for Long An Province is 10 per cent.

The city People's Committee has designated four companies to buy pigs raised in the city at VND29,000-32,000 per kilogramme in case of farms and VND25,000 in case of households.

More than 10,000 large and household farms raise 369,000 animals, with 60,000-65,000 ready for slaughter, mostly in outlying districts like Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, and Binh Chanh.

The four selected firms are Sai Gon Trading Group, Vissan Co Ltd, Sai Gon Agriculture Incorporation, and Sai Gon Co.op.

So far 27 provinces and cities have reported outbreaks of blue-ear disease with more than 243,000 pigs infected and nearly 116,000 destroyed. — VNS

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200,000 more pigs to get blue-ear shots

HA NOI — The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Animal Health Department will administer over 200,000 doses of Chinese-made vaccines against blue-ear disease later this month, said Van Dang Ky, head of the department's epidemiological service.

Pigs in high-risk regions in the south would be prioritised for vaccination, Ky said.

If the vaccines prove safe and effective, they would be put into wider use, he added.

Department inspectors visited Guangdong, China, where the vaccine has seen success in preventing the spread of the disease in several southern Chinese provinces.

This was the fifth vaccine against blue-ear disease to be piloted in Viet Nam, Ky noted, and it was expected to show greater effectiveness.

The disease has been largely kept out of HCM City so far, thanks to strict control of transportation and slaughter of sick pigs.

Nguyen Phuoc Trung, deputy director of HCM City's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, warned, however, that the disease could still break out following the recently culling of swine belonging to 22 households in District 12. The city has offered financial support of VND25,000 per kg of live pigs to 11 households.

Phan Xuan Thao, head of the HCM City Animal Health Department, said blue-ear disease had mostly struck small-household farms with inadequate facilities to ensure sanitation.

The Prime Minister has asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to donate 25,000 litres of disinfectant to the southern provinces of Soc Trang, Tien Giang and Long An to help halt the spread of the disease.

Blue-ear disease has been reported in 27 out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide, mostly in the south. Figures from the Department of Animal Health showed that 56,810 pigs had contracted the disease and that 27,000 pigs had been culled.

Pigs raised using industrial methods were safe, and consumers did not need to avoid pork products, said Thao. — VNS

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Transport of pigs under scrutiny to stop blue-ear

A veterinary staff member carries out a biopsy on a carcass at Thuan Loi slaughter-house in HCM City. The city has ordered closer monitoring of the way pigs are transported into the city to keep out blue-ear disease. —VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hai

HCM CITY — Chairman of the HCM City People's Committee Le Hoang Quan has ordered for closer monitoring of transport of pigs into the city to keep out blue-ear disease.

The chairman also called for increased awareness of the disease among pig farmers.

"All measures must be taken to ensure safe pork is available for Tet (the Lunar New Year) early next year and farmers and breeders have disease-free animals for breeding after the epidemic abates," he said.

According to a preliminary report by the city Division of Animal Health, inspectors in District 9 found and destroyed more than two tonnes of pig carcasses in Long Binh Ward. They had been brought in from Dong Nai Province's Trang Bom District.

In Binh Chanh District, authorities found and destroyed 2.1 tonnes of infected meat at an illegal food shop.

In districts 1, 2, 12, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc, animal quarantine stations seized and destroyed more than 5.3 tonnes of illegally transported pork and suckling pigs.

Phan Xuan Thao, head of the animal health division, said the transport of pigs with blue-ear disease into the city from other provinces had been rising since the end of July.

And, things are worsening in the city's neighbourhood. All samples taken from pigs transported from Tay Ninh Province tested positive for the disease. For Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, the number was 35 out of 50.

Nguyen Trung Tin, city People's Committee deputy chairman and head of a Standing Board for Animal Diseases Prevention, said the city also had to focus on ensuring the safety of its 30,000 pigs.

He ordered the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to work with provinces to prevent the illegal transport of pigs, and the Division of Animal Health to disinfect the city, especially breeding and slaughter sites.

He asked the State-owned Vissan Company to buy up all the stocks of pigs sold by farmers to ensure there would be adequate supply this year.

Van Duc Muoi, the company's general director, fearing an impending pork scarcity, said the company would carry out the city's orders.

So far 22 provinces and cities have reported outbreaks of blue-ear disease.

Van Dang Ky of the Department of Animal Health said Can Tho and Ben Tre Province were the two latest locations to report outbreaks.

The department has sought clearance from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to import 210,000 more vaccines from China for pigs.— VNS

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