The Year of the Pig has just begun, but already pigs are dying. In northern Vietnam’s port city of Hai Phong, African swine fever, an incurable disease, has led to the deaths of 35 pigs on one farm alone.
According to VnExpress, local authorities have already buried the dead pigs and disinfected the area; as there is no known cure, all other infected pigs in the area will have to be put down.
According to the Animal Health Department, this is the third recent outbreak of the disease, after it was previously identified in both Thai Binh and Hung Yen provinces, which led to the deaths of over 130 pigs.
Pawin Padungtod, Senior Technical Coordinator of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Disease in Vietnam, however, told the news source that the public should not be concerned about health risks as the disease cannot be transmitted from swine to humans and will not affect cooked meat.
All in all, it simply hasn't been a good run for pigs recently. Late last year, the highly contagious foot and mouth disease (FMD) also broke out among livestock just 90 minutes outside of central Hanoi, in Ba Vi District. Up to 260 pigs were said to have been infected in the area, leading the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department of Animal Health to request that all infected animals be killed.
