On June 16, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment held a conference to review national programs and plans for the prevention and control of avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever.
Building a biosafety livestock industry to meet export markets
Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung Duc Tien emphasized that Vietnam is a country with the largest livestock and poultry herds in the world, with about 31 million pigs alone and hundreds of millions of poultry. Therefore, the requirements for disease prevention and control for livestock herds must be carried out regularly and continuously.
(Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien speaking at the Conference. Photo: Ngoc Tran/Bnews/vnanet.vn)
In particular, in the 2020-2025 period, Vietnam has effectively controlled and prevented diseases in livestock and poultry, contributing to ensuring food supply for the domestic market and export. Vaccination for livestock and poultry plays an important role in preventing and controlling diseases, preventing the spread and widespread outbreaks.
The veterinary and livestock sectors have a particularly important role in the agricultural growth achievements in recent times with three major plans for preventing and controlling animal diseases.
The Deputy Minister highly appreciated the continuous efforts of the ministry, localities, business community and livestock farmers in implementing three national plans for preventing and controlling avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever.
The Deputy Minister also noted the major remaining problems such as: the high prevalence rate of avian influenza virus; Small-scale and concentrated livestock farming make it difficult to control epidemics; vaccination in remote areas is still weak; slaughter and processing facilities do not meet export standards; infrastructure in livestock farming areas is still lacking. These difficulties need to be resolved through incentive mechanisms, support policies, raising awareness and tightening supervision.
Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien also said: The results achieved from national plans are an important premise for building a modern, biosafety livestock industry with the capacity to adapt to epidemics and meet the requirements of the domestic and export markets.
Mr. Phan Quang Minh, Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, said: In the first 6 months of 2025, dangerous diseases in livestock and poultry continued to be controlled relatively effectively.
Specifically, the country recorded 251 outbreaks of African swine fever in 35 provinces, a decrease of 14.63% in the number of localities with the epidemic, a decrease of 61.79% in the number of outbreaks and 81.27% in damage compared to the same period in 2024. Avian influenza occurred in 6 provinces with 9 outbreaks, causing 21,337 infected pigs and 25,318 pigs to be destroyed, the number of provinces with the epidemic decreased, but the level of damage doubled (2.03 times).
Foot and mouth disease recorded 10 outbreaks nationwide with 235 infected pigs, 34 pigs destroyed, a decrease of more than 77% in the number of outbreaks and more than 83% in the number of infected pigs. Lumpy skin disease occurred in 7 provinces, with 88 infected pigs, 29 dead or destroyed.
Regarding the National Program for Avian Influenza Prevention and Control, period 2019 - 2025, the leader of the Department of Livestock Production and Veterinary Medicine said that proactive monitoring has contributed to early warning, epidemiological analysis and orientation for selecting appropriate vaccines; the number of avian influenza outbreaks has decreased significantly compared to the previous period (2014 - 2018), a 33% decrease in the average number of outbreaks/year, and a 3.6% decrease in the number of provinces with outbreaks.
This shows that disease control has been somewhat effective, although there are still challenges in minimizing poultry losses. In addition, the VAHIS Online Reporting System has significantly supported timely monitoring, reporting and management of epidemics, helping to improve the effectiveness of disease response.
Regarding the National Plan for Disease Prevention and Control, period 2020 - 2025; By mid-2025, the livestock and veterinary sector has nearly completed the target of over 90% of communes, wards and towns being free of African swine fever in the first 2 years; over 95% of communes, wards and towns being free of African swine fever in the next 2 years and over 99% of communes, wards and towns being free of African swine fever in the last 2 years of implementing the Plan.
In addition, the country has 580 pig farms certified as disease-free for African swine fever, an increase compared to the set target of 80 farms. Currently, Vietnam has 3 types of African swine fever vaccines that have been granted circulation certificates. During the period from 2023 to 2025, 957,278 pigs were vaccinated with African swine fever vaccine by 35,615 households and farms in 45 provinces and cities. The number of pigs that died after vaccination was low, only about 0.1% (988 pigs). The reason is that most of these pigs had been infected with the field virus before or their resistance was reduced due to diseases caused by Escherichia coli, PCV2.
The results of using African swine fever vaccine in localities in recent times have shown that the vaccine is effective and efficient in preventing African swine fever, thereby basically controlling African swine fever in pig herds and increasing herd restoration, supplying pork products to consumers.
With the National Program for prevention and control of foot and mouth disease, period 2021 - 2025. The leader of the Department of Animal Husbandry and
Veterinary said: The number of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and infected livestock decreased by 10-20% compared to the average of the entire period 2016-2020; successfully built at least 10 more disease-free areas at the district or inter-district level of one or more provinces and cities; built and maintained at least 1,000 disease-free livestock farming facilities and chains against foot-and-mouth disease; recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). Vietnam's National Program for Prevention and Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease is consistent with WOAH's recommendations.
In the first 6 months of 2025, the progress of animal disease vaccination using the state budget has not yet met the targets set by the National Plans. The vaccination rate for new pig herds reached 1.11% of the total herd; avian influenza vaccine reached 19.8% and foot-and-mouth disease in cattle reached 25.5%. In addition to avian influenza, most of the remaining diseases have vaccination rates below 10%, showing that vaccine coverage is still limited, especially in small and scattered livestock areas.
The main reasons are still difficulties in checking the total herd close to the vaccination time, lack of funding, complicated purchasing procedures, and low vaccination awareness among people. Some localities have not yet implemented sanctions for non-compliance with vaccination, making it difficult to ensure community immunity.
Furthermore, due to the limited awareness of some livestock households about the dangers and proactive vaccination of livestock, they only buy vaccines when an epidemic occurs. The application of sanctions to handle administrative violations, especially penalties for non-compliance with vaccination in localities is almost impossible due to deference or the hesitation of livestock farmers not wanting to vaccinate livestock and poultry.
(Ngoc Tran/Bnews/vnanet.vn Source: Bnews)
