HCM City monitors pork to control blue-ear pig disease

A pig showing symptoms of blue-ear disease that was found at a farm in Dong Nai Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Huynh Su

HCM CITY — The HCM City Animal Health Division has strengthened inspection of pigs being transported into the city from provinces with blue-ear disease breakouts, its chief said.

Phan Xuan Thao told Tin Tuc (News) newspaper that two neighbouring provinces, Dong Nai and Binh Duong, are currently grappling with the disease.

In Dong Nai, 834 pigs have died in five communes where 2,390 contracted the disease.

In Binh Duong, 962 pigs fell sick.

City agencies have warned that the risk of diseased pigs being transported into the city is very high.

His division is working with other agencies to monitor the transport of pigs at city entry points, Thao said.

Recently its inspection team co-operated with the traffic police and found 459kilos of pork brought from Dong Nai, he said.

It has also instructed district animal health centres to take the initiative to regularly check pigs in their areas to ensure they do not have blue-ear disease, and penalise people who buy and bring pigs without origin and quarantine documents.

Nguyen Phuoc Trung, head of the city's Agriculture and Rural Development Department, said 2,600 cases of killing and transporting livestock including pigs without origins were found in the first six months of this year.

Fines of VND2.7 billion (US$128,600) were slapped on the offenders.

At the beginning of July inspectors from the division found two slaughterhouses in Vinh Loc B Commune in the city's Binh Tan District killing dozens of pigs that did not have quarantine or origin documents.

Tests found that all of them had blue-ear disease, Trung said.

The division has stepped up information campaign, trained farmers in preventive methods and handed out vaccines against the disease.

It has encouraged them not to hide the fact when pigs get the disease or sell diseased animals. — VNS