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Vietnam
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Vietnam’s swine fever infections triple in 2 weeks to over 100,000

The surge in cases is threatening to disrupt the country’s food supplies, as the government scrambles to curb a nationwide livestock crisis

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A street seller grills pork skewers beside a river walkway in Hoi An. African swine fever threatens to disrupt pork supply in Vietnam. Photo: Getty Images
Reuters
Vietnam has been hit by an increasing number of outbreaks of African swine fever, with the number of infected pigs more than tripling in just two weeks, state media said on Tuesday.

The country has detected 972 African swine fever outbreaks so far this year, up from 514 reported in mid-July, the Tien Phong newspaper reported.

The number of pigs infected has risen to more than 100,000 from 30,000 over the same period, the paper said, citing Vietnam’s agriculture ministry. The infected pigs have died or been culled.

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“[African swine fever] has broken out on a very large scale, spreading across the country, seriously affecting the livestock industry, especially the supply of pork,” Nguyen Xuan Duong, chairman of the Animal Husbandry Association of Vietnam, was quoted as saying. He added that no province was safe from the disease.

People herd pigs to avoid flooding in Vietnam’s north-central Nghe An province on July 23. Photo: AFP
People herd pigs to avoid flooding in Vietnam’s north-central Nghe An province on July 23. Photo: AFP
African swine fever has disrupted the global pork market for years. In the worst outbreak over 2018-19, about half the domestic pig population died in China, the world’s biggest producer, causing losses estimated at over US$100 billion.
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