VietNamNet Bridge – The Animal Health Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has warned of complicated developments of the blue-ear epidemic in pigs in northern provinces.

The risk of an outbreak is very high in Red River Delta and northern mountainous provinces, said MARD Deputy Minister Diep Kinh Tan.

In Hanoi, the disease has been found in Ba Vi and Phuc Tho districts and Son Tay Town.

Pigs died massively in Minh Chau Commune, but local farming households still secretly trafficked them to other communes in nearby Phu Tho Province for sale. Many people in this commune showed apathy towards warnings by local authorities, throwing dead pigs or discharging waste water from their farms into the Red River, threatening to spread the disease on a large scale.

“The polluted river water is a reason behind the epidemic outbreak in this area,” said Nguyen Van Cai, a local resident.
Meanwhile, the Phu Tho provincial People’s Committee has declared the outbreak of blue-ear disease in Thanh Dinh and Kim Duc communes following Van Phu and Minh Nong wards in Viet Tri City.

The province now has more than 360 diseased pigs in 40 families and relevant agencies are taking measures to disinfect these areas.

Nguyen Tat Thanh, head of the provincial Animal Health Department, said they had culled cattle infected with the disease, and vaccinated the rest.

“We also set up check-points in affected communes and strictly ban the slaughter and trafficking of pigs from these communes to other places,” Thanh said.

In the northern border province of Lang Son, nearly 200 pigs have been infected with blue-ear disease, of which 20 have died.
The provincial Animal Health Department was given 10,000 doses of vaccines to encircle the hot spots of the epidemic.

VietNamNet/VOV