From the top level of government, a new directive aims to gain control over the spread of African swine fever (ASF) in Vietnam as the numbers of outbreaks and pigs culled continue to pass last year’s levels.
Since ASF first arrived in the country in February 2019, Vietnam has suffered outbreaks in all provinces/cities.
With no early end in sight, a new directive has been issued to mandate disease control measures, reported Saigon News last week.
The deputy prime minister has urged rigorous and synchronized measures to control ASF to be implemented.
From the top of government has come the call for leaders of People’s Committees at city/provincial level to take direct action and mobilize local resources to tackle existing outbreaks and prevent the spread of infection.
So far this year, a total of 1,452 outbreaks have occurred across Vietnam, according to agriculture ministry figures cited in the report. These have affected more than 1,100 communities in 48 administrative regions. More than 81,000 swine have been culled as a result of these outbreaks, which is over two-and-a-half times more than over the same period of 2023.
Authorities appear to be taking early action to avoid food shortages and price hikes for the Lunar New Year holidays. As well as ASF, the nation’s farmers have been hard hit by a recent series of damaging storms, according to the same source.
At the start of October, the nation’s ASF outbreak total was given as 1,005 in 46 regions, and around 63,600 animals culled in Vietnam.
Disease developments elsewhere in Asia
An ASF wave that began in Hong Kong at the end of October 2023 has been declared “resolved.” This is according to a recent notification from the authorities in the Special Administrative Region to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
The most recent outbreak — the 10th in the series — was confirmed in January. All cases were in domestic pigs, and a total of 17,467 animals were culled as part of the disease control measures.
Also recovering from earlier ASF outbreaks is the east Malaysian state of Sarawak.
Last week, the region’s food minister was present at a groundbreaking ceremony for a large new pig farming complex, reported The Borneo Post.
The modern site will follow cutting-edge biosecurity and environmental management practices, which are among the lessons learned from a recent wave of ASF outbreaks in the region. Plans for the unit are for 12,000 breeding sows, and annual production of 150,000 pigs.
Based on data from the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Industry, the ASF situation in the Philippines shows some sign of improvement.
As of November 8, there were ongoing outbreaks in 21 provinces in six regions — reductions of four in both categories since mid-October. However, more communities are now affected by ASF in the worst-affected provinces of North Cotabato (on the island of Mindanao), and Camarines Sur (on Mindanao) than reported on October 16.
From Indonesia, the national animal health information system records one more ASF outbreak than the previous week (as of November 11). This involved 285 pigs in the region worst affected by ASF so far this year, which is East Nusa Tenggara. Since January, 359 outbreaks have occurred across 11 provinces, directly affecting 6,486 swine.
In South Korea, six more cases of ASF in wild boar have been confirmed over the past week, according to Pig & People (as of November 10).
Since the virus was first detected in the country in 2019, 4,177 cases have been confirmed in wild boar, and outbreaks have occurred on 48 farms. The most recent of these was confirmed on November 3.
New outbreaks in domestic pigs in 5 European states
Over the past week, four countries in the region have officially recorded with WOAH new ASF outbreaks in their domestic pigs.
Two nations — Italy and Romania – confirmed that one commercial farm had been affected.
The latest Italian outbreak occurred in the northwestern region of Piedmont. Four of the animals died, but the herd size is not reported.
It was the first ASF outbreak in domestic pigs in the province (Alessandria), although many wild boar have tested positive for the virus there.
This recent outbreak brought the nation’s total in domestic pigs since January 2022 to 47, according to the national ASF bulletin.
Latest notification to WOAH from the Romanian authority covers six further outbreaks in domestic swine. Of these, one involved a commercial farm with approximately 3,660 animals in the central county of Sibiu. The other herds affected in the country were non-commercial, each involving between six and 74 pigs.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, two further outbreaks were confirmed to WOAH. Starting in the last week of October, these affected backyard herds.
Latest reports from the Ukrainian authorities cover two additional outbreaks, which began this month. These involved a backyard herd in the central province of Kirovohrad, and the discovery of six infected pig carcasses in Mykolaiv in the south of the country.
Bringing the number of European states recording new ASF outbreaks in domestic swine over the past week to five is the Republic of Serbia. There, five additional outbreaks were registered by the Animal Disease Information System from the European Commission (EC; dated November 6). The database monitors listed animal diseases in European Union member states and adjacent countries.
As of that date, 15 countries monitored by the EC had registered a total of 686 outbreaks in this population in 2024.
According to the EC system, the worst-affected states in terms of outbreak totals for the year to date are Serbia (282), Romania (178) and Ukraine (66).
During the whole of last year, 16 of the region’s states recorded a total of 4,513 ASF outbreaks in this category with the EC.
Europe’s total wild boar outbreaks passes 5,600
Over the previous seven days, a total of 155 new cases of ASF in the wild population were registered with the EC system in nine countries (as of November 6).
Reporting the most of these latest cases were Poland (72) and Bulgaria (42). Also with new cases — but 16 or fewer — were Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.
These bring to 5,655 the total number of outbreaks in this population so far this year, according to the latest update of the EC system. Cases have been confirmed in 21 countries.
Worst affected have been the wild boar populations of Poland (1,612 outbreaks), Italy (1,151), Latvia (719), Germany (595) and Lithuania (471).
For comparison, more than 7,900 outbreaks in this category were recorded by 20 countries in the region, according to the EC, during the whole of 2023.
In the Czech Republic (Czechia), a campaign has begun to cull wild boar in two districts of the northern region of Liberec.
For the next month, police marksmen will be working to reduce the wild population in two hunting areas, where boar numbers have risen out of control, according to the state veterinary service. Access to these areas by the public will not be allowed while the cull is in progress.