December 2, 2024

Vietnam, WOAH co-organised workshop focused on controlling ASF

Vietnam's Department of Animal Health, Ministry of Agriculture, and Rural Development, along with the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), organised the 4th International Workshop on African swine fever in Southeast Asian Countries.

During the three-day workshop held on November 26-28, delegates reported about the global situation with African swine fever (ASF) and the role of international organisations, including the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) in controlling the disease. Delegates also discussed strategies to deal with the disease until 2030. Through this, countries will also enhance cooperation, information exchange and international cooperation in controlling ASF.

Vietnam has successfully researched, produced, and commercialised two types of ASF vaccines from NAVETCO Company and AVAC Company. These vaccines are being used in Vietnam and are exported to several other countries. Currently, WOAH and FAO are coordinating with Vietnam to assess the use of vaccines throughout Vietnam and countries in the region such as the Philippines.

Since the outbreak of ASF in February 2019, Vietnam's pig farming industry has lost over six million pigs to the disease. From the start of 2024 to November 25, there were 1,538 outbreaks nationwide, occurring in 48 provinces and cities in the country, causing the death and destruction of 88,258 pigs.

Nguyen Van Long, director of the Department of Animal Health, said that Vietnam has used 5.9 million doses of ASF vaccine to date. In localities that had very serious epidemics such as Lang Son, Cao Bang, and Bac Ninh, ASF was well controlled there after one to two months of using the vaccine

- Vietnam News Agency