Agricultural and animal health officials in Vietnam are dealing with a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. According to reports over the weekend, nearly 38,000 pigs have already been culled. The disease is reported to have infected 39 provinces within the country.
According to Van Nam Hoang, head of Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's animal health department, local producers and officials failed to manage areas with the greatest virus exposure and did not destroy infected cattle as instructed, allowing the virus to spread quickly and broadly, reported vetsweb.com.
Late last year, South Korea faced significant FMD outbreak, which forced producers there to cull an estimated one-third of the country’s hog herd. Speculation continues as to whether that country will rebuild its herd back to levels before the outbreak.
According to USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, Vietnam ranks about 6th in world pork production at 1.85 million metric tons. It stands at No. 12 in terms of U.S. pork exports (10,108 metric tons) and at No. 10 for U.S. pork variety meats (6,636 metric tons). The country comes in at No. 9 for global pork consumption.
As for other animals impacted by the FMD outbreak, AHD officials report 5,000 buffaloes, 938 cows and 329 goats have also been culled.
AHD officials are urging officials and producers within the affected provinces to implement disease-prevention programs and organize vaccinations for the rest of 2011. It also has pushed for appropriate vaccine use, as FMD virus strains evolve continuously.
Vietnam officials want to contain FMD by 2015.
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