African swine fever found in another province near Saigon

Between Wednesday and Saturday, three farms in the province’s Dong Phu District reported cases of pigs with African swine fever, a viral disease that infects all pig species through bodily fluids such as blood and mucus and causes hemorrhagic fever.

The disease was found in farms belonging at two households in Tan Lap Commune and one in Tan Phu Town. In total, 21 pigs have been affected and killed.

Tran Van Loc, director of the provincial agriculture department, said Binh Phuoc had 11,000 households with 250 large-scale farms raising around 740,000 pigs.

The local authorities have quarantined affected areas.

Binh Phuoc, three hours north of Ho Chi Minh City, is the second southern province that has seen the disease after it spread to more than 20 cities and provinces in the northern and central regions this year, leading to the killing of over 85,000 pigs.

Dong Nai Province, a neighbor of HCMC and home to the nation’s largest pig herd, last Wednesday reported the disease in two of its farms.

HCMC is implementing plans to protect 280,000 pigs raised by 4,000 households in the municipality, the city’s agriculture department said.

African swine fever attacked Vietnam on February 1 this year. Several northern provinces and the capital city Hanoi have reported they are free of African swine fever as per Vietnamese regulations after there were no new cases of pigs dying for 30 days.

Some 70 percent of meat products in Vietnam are from pigs, with over 10,000 farms and 2.5 million households raising the animal for food.

There is no cure for African swine fever though humans are not affected by it.

Twenty countries and territories have reported outbreaks since 2017 and over one million pigs have been put down, according to the World Organization for Animal Health. Vietnam is the third country in Asia to be hit after China and Mongolia.