African swine fever happened in 2019, causing great damage to the farmers in the province. After the epidemic was over, people actively re-flocked to restore livestock production. One of the measures to protect pigs that people apply is biosafety farming.
The pig farm of Truong Thinh Agriculture Company Limited (An Thai commune, Phu Giao district) strictly complies with the biosafety process, preventing epidemics.
To limit the disease
Due to the specific nature of African swine fever that there is no preventive vaccine, the local authorities believe that the situation of African swine fever may continue to occur in areas where biosafety farming is poor and not guaranteed by veterinary hygiene conditions. From the above comments, along with the serious implementation of the direction of the Prime Minister and the guidance of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Provincial People's Committee has been interested in directing synchronous implementation of many solutions to prevent and control African swine fever. Up to now, the prevention of CPH in the province has been controlled; many localities in the province no longer have recurrent epidemics.
According to the Department of Livestock, Animal Health and Fisheries, after the epidemic was controlled, the breeders focused on implementing measures to protect the sow herd so that they could have breeding offsprings. The localities have closely followed the guidance documents of the province and the industry, boosting the propaganda to the people when performing the re-herding, strictly complying with measures to disinfect and import native breed pigs of clear origin to avoid mass re-herds. During the breeding process, the procedures of biosafety farming and disease safety have been followed.
Although being affected by African swine fever, in the past, the province's livestock sector has still developed stably. The total herd of buffaloes and cows is about 23,000 heads; the total herd of pigs is about 853,000 heads, an increase of 30% over the same period, the total poultry population is about 13 million heads.
The Provincial People's Committee has just issued Official Letter No. 3372/UBND-KT on the implementation of the national plan to prevent and control African swine fever disease in period of 2020-2025. According to the official dispatch, the general goal is to ensure the implementation of Biosafety farming breeding, disease safety; proactive monitoring for early detection, timely and effective application of measures to prevent and control African swine fever to minimize economic losses and limit the negative impact of pork prices on consumer price indexes; to limit environmental pollution and affecting commercial activities of animals and animal products caused by epidemic diseases.
The specific goal is that over 50% of communes, wards and towns without CPD in the first 2 years of implementing the plan; over 60% of communes, wards and towns do not have CPIs in the next 2 years and over 70% of communes, wards and towns do not have CPIs in the last 2 years of implementing the plan. There are 100% of large-scale farms and over 70% of small and medium-scale farms apply biosafety farming practices. Supporting organizations and individuals are to build at least 20 pig farms in the province certified to be free from epidemic diseases. Biosafety farming level 1 laboratory was built to meet the rapid diagnosis and testing by Realtime PCR technology for African swine fever disease and other dangerous infectious diseases that risk transmission to humans according to regulations.
To build a disease-free facility
Over the past time, the Department of Livestock, Animal Health and Fisheries has encouraged companies and farms to build disease-free facilities. Up to now, the whole province has 4 large-scale pig farms recognized as the basis of free from disease, including pig farms of Vinh Tan 3, Vinh Tan 5, Vinh Tan 6 and Mai Thi Thao pig farm. These are the first 4 farms in the country certified to be free from African swine fever. According to the Department of Livestock, Animal Health and Fisheries, it is expected that by the end of September 2020, the unit will continue to take samples for testing and complete the evaluation of records to recognize 15 more livestock farms.
Mr. Nguyen Van Chinh, Kim Linh pig farm owner (at An Linh commune, Phu Giao district), said that biosafety farming breeding is applying integratedly with synchronous technical and management measures to prevent contact between objects of breeding and pathogens to ensure that the livestock are completely healthy and free from diseases. Accordingly, farm owners need to invest in a closed barn system under a modern process; using a combination of disease prevention measures such as: sprinkle lime powder; to spray disinfectant regularly and supplement with nutritional food to improve the resistance of animals.
To implement biosafety farming to pig breeding, according to Mr. Tran Phu Cuong, Director of Sub-Department of Livestock Production, Animal Health and Fisheries, people need to comply with requirements on barns, seed, food and drink, care, nurture, veterinary hygiene, waste treatment and environmental protection. In addition to biosafety breeding measures, when rearing or rearing a new breed, it is necessary to seriously implement the husbandry declaration with the local authorities regarding biosafety farming breeding to ensure quality products and sustainable development.
Reported by Thoai Phuong - Translated by Vi Bao
