More than 3,500 infected pigs must be destroyed in the three provinces of Quang Tri, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen, the Animal Health Department said.
Local health agencies said more than 3,400 pigs were infected with blue ear disease in Quang Tri alone, according to ThanhNien News.
But the real number is surely higher as Hai Lang district residents had already sold thousands of their infected pigs to the market 2-3 weeks before local heath departments discovered the outbreak.
Nguyen Chi Phi, a representative from the Dien Khanh Cooperative, a farmer’s co-op in Hai Lang District, said thousands of pigs from the cooperative’s 400 household farms had begin suffering from high fevers, appetite loss, and bleeding about a month ago.
Some of them died and were buried while others were sold for sick pig prices between VND12,000 (US$0.7) and VND20,000 ($1.2) per kilogram, he said.
The district’s animal health agencies only announced the outbreak last Sunday after the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology confirmed the presence of the Lelstad virus in local pigs.
The institute had been sent samples from infected pigs by the district department.
The government gives farmers VND25,000 ($1.5) per kilogram in compensation for the pigs that must be destroyed due to the virus.
In the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, which supplies pigs to neighboring Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai Province, the disease is still a problem.
The provincial department has required district-level People’s Committees to strictly inspect local slaughterhouses for infected animals.
View the ThanhNien News story by clicking here.
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