The Vietnamese government has urged ministries and localities to rapidly contain foot-and-mouth disease, eventually eradicating it by 2010, Vietnam News Agency reported Thursday.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Thursday said they should focus on intensifying surveillance, timely detecting and then culling infected cattle, urgently isolating affected areas, and closely monitoring slaughter, transport and trade of animals in the areas. He said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and localities are not very active in battling the disease.

The deputy minister asked the ministry to rapidly implement an anti-foot and mouth disease program with total investment of 250 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (15.7 million U.S. dollars) so that Vietnam could eliminate it by 2010. Some 51 billion VND (3.2 million dollars) worth of state monies has already been used for the five-year program recently approved by the government.

Vietnam has, in recent weeks, detected nearly 10,000 buffalos and bulls and over 12,000 pigs in 183 communes and wards of 21 cities and provinces nationwide being infected with foot-and-mouth disease, the agency said.

The country now has 8 million buffalos and bulls, and 23 million pigs.

Source: Xinhua