The blue-ear disease has been spreading and causing deaths to a large number of pigs, resulting in a sharp fall of pork prices and hurting hundreds of thousands of pig producers in Vietnam, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The number of culled pigs accounted for only 1% of the pig flock in the northern region, but the sinking of pork and pig prices by 40% will likely make hog farmers, who have suffered from consecutive rises of animal feed prices, go bankrupt, MARD said.

The Department of Animal Husbandry under the MARD said since the disease outbreak was found in Hai Duong province on Mar 23, the disease has spread to 13 provinces and cities so far with prices of pig breeds dropping 30%-35% and pork falling 20%-40% to only VND25,000-VND26,000 (US$1.32-$1.37)/kg in the northern provinces.

In southern provinces, prices have also kept falling in the past weeks though no outbreak has been found, said Nguyen Huu Chi, director of Tien Phong Breeding Cooperative in HCM City, adding that with the price falling from VND35,000 (US$1.85)/kg to VND32,000 (US$1.69)/kg, his cooperative lost VND1.2 billion (US$63,258) from selling 4,000 pigs, or 400 tonnes of pork.

Farmers worried that prices will continue falling in the coming weeks as large quantities of pig are being carried from the north to the south.

HCM City interdisciplinary inspection team said they have detected 50-60 violation cases of animal transport to the city in the recent three weeks, with almost all of the detected pork being unoriginal and without safety certification.