The HCM City Municipal People’s Committee on August 13 urged key corporations and cattle processors to speed up the purchase, slaughtering and delivery of safe pork in the face of the spreading of the blue-ear pig disease.

It also asked the designated agencies to stockpile safe meat to ensure an adequate supply of pork products on the market after the epidemic wanes.

Farmers are running into difficulties with the purchase price of pigs having fallen dramatically to VND22,000/kg. Facing a big loss, they are not interested in investing in new pig herds, which could result in a serious shortage of safe meat on the market when the epidemic is contained.

The Municipal People’s Committee instructed its departments and districts to enhance the dissemination of information about the epidemic and preventative measures. It asked farmers, abattoirs and consumers not to hide outbreaks or purchase, sell and transport sick animals, or dispose of them in public places.

The committee also called for a tight control of transport and sales of animal products, especially pork, at street meet stalls, inter-provincial bus stations, wholesale markets and entrance gates to prevent products of unknown origin from penetrating the city.

Also on August 13, Long An province – a gateway to HCM City – declared the blue ear pig disease in Chau Thanh district. It warned the disease could spread rapidly to neighbouring communes and buffer zones, including Tan Chanh, Tan An, Phuoc Tuy, Nhut Ninh, Duc Tan, Anh Vinh Ngai and Binh Tam communes.

The provincial People’s Committee asked Chau Thanh district and Tan An city to establish taskforces to assist farmers in culling sick pigs.

The province banned the trading, slaughtering and transport of pigs and related products within the epidemic-affected areas. It has required the provincial Animal Health Department to quarantine outbreaks, disinfect farms, cull dead or sick pigs, and increase patrols at markets and gates to the province.

Local quarantine agencies have set up checkpoints along major arteries to the province, put up signposts at high-risks areas, and sterilized the means of transport coming into and going out of the affected localities.

Since the first case was detected in Tan Tan city on July 16, 2010, the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus has attacked 61 communes, with 5,500 pigs infected.

In Dong Nai province – another gateway to HCM City, the provincial Animal health Department announced on August 13 that the disease has spread to Bac Son and Song Trau communes in Trang Bom district bordering Vinh Tan commune in Vinh Cuu district where the first case of infection was confirmed on July 29.

Bac Son and Vinh Tan communes have culled more than 2,000 sick pigs, however, Vinh Tan now has about 3,000 pigs testing positive for the PRRS virus.

On a fact-finding tour the same day, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat asked the provincial Animal Health Department to separate healthy animals from sick ones, cull all infected pigs, disinfect farms and apply the commercial breeding model.

Dong Nai has the largest number of pigs in Vietnam, about 1.4 million.

In the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa, blue-ear pig disease outbreaks have been confirmed in 36 communes of six districts and cities. Local animal health agencies have culled more than 1,300 sick pigs testing positive for the PRRS virus. Thousands of other pigs are under strict surveillance.

After declaring the epidemic on August 12, Khanh Hoa has established checkpoints along roads to Cam Ranh town and Khanh Son district where the disease has not yet been detected.