Vietnam drastically combats foot-and-mouth disease

Vietnam, in an effort to control the widespread of foot-and-mouth disease, is intensifying slaughter of infected animals, beefing up surveillance and propaganda on the disease, according to a local animal health agency on Thursday.

Under a regulation recently issued by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, all pigs, goats, sheep or deer in a cage in which a single animal shows foot-and-mouth symptoms will have to be culled, even before the results of the disease's tests come out, said the ministry's Department of Animal Health.

Infected bulls and buffaloes in outbreaks occurring for the first time in a commune, or contracting viruses of new types or viruses that have not appeared in a province or city for a long time will also be slaughtered.

Under the new regulation, a commune has to declare foot-and- mouth outbreaks when the disease occurs in a hamlet, and a district has to do this when it hits two communes, and a province has to do this when it strikes two districts.

The department has established six working teams with the tasks of helping localities build plans on the disease's prevention and fight, isolating affected areas and working out vaccination schemes.

Foot-and-mouth disease has jumped to 235 communes in 30 cities and provinces nationwide, hitting over 26,000 pigs, bulls and buffaloes, of which over 10,600 have been killed or culled by the disease, said the department.

Source: Xinhua