Blue ear pig disease strikes six Vietnamese areas

Blue ear disease has hit at least 15,000 pigs in six northern and central locales in Vietnam since the illness reared its head again early this month.

According to statements made by the Animal Health Department late last week, nearly half of the sick pigs have died of the disease or been destroyed by local health agencies or farmers in the six provinces and cities.

Last June, the department said that Vietnam had successfully curbed the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, bird flu and the blue ear pig disease. But blue ear cropped up again in Hai Duong province April 3.

In other health news, Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan on Friday (April 23) ordered the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to study changes in cholera bacteria that have caused recent outbreaks in five provinces and cities, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.