African swine fever (ASF) has spread across 62 out of 63 provinces and centrally-run cities in the country, forcing the cull of more than 3.3 million pigs

At a conference on measures tofight ASF held in Hanoi on July 11, the department said the south-centralprovince of Ninh Thuan is the only locality free from the disease, which is notcurable in pigs but does not transmit to humans.

Minister of Agriculture andRural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said pending the successful production of vaccine,the best solution at present to cope with the disease is to apply strictbio-safety procedures in pig raising. He cited the example of Que Lam group inthe central province of Thua Thien-Hue, whose pig farms are still safe fromASF.

Vice Chairman of the People’sCommittee of Quang Ninh province Dang Huy Hau stressed the need to shift tolarge-scale animal husbandry and invest in concentrated abattoirs to curb thespread of the disease. He noted that household farms and scattered small-scale slaughterhouses are the main cause of the transmission of the virus.

Discussing the possible shortageof pork towards the end of the year, Minister Cuong said the ministry hasjoined hand with localities to develop other types of foods to compensate forpork. He added that the output of poultry has increased by 7.2 percent in thefirst half of the year.-VNA