From the beginning of 2025 to July 31, African swine fever occurred in 55/56 communes and wards of Cao Bang province, forcing more than 30,300 infected pigs to be destroyed (accounting for 8.6% of the total flock), equivalent to 1,510 tons. Currently, there are 54 communes and wards that have not had an epidemic for more than 21 days, and the risk of spreading continues to increase.
According to the investigation of the reporter, the People's Committee of Cao Bang province has provided more than 77,000 doses of vaccine, nearly 15,000 liters of disinfectants, controlled more than 18,000 pigs for slaughter, organized inspections in many communes, and collected samples for testing to determine the cause of the epidemic.
At the recent conference on disease prevention and control on August 1, delegates proposed tightening control of transportation and slaughter; strengthening propaganda to each livestock household; establishing an epidemic prevention team at the grassroots level; strictly implementing "5 no's" (no hiding epidemic; no buying, selling, transporting sick pigs, dead pigs; no slaughtering, consuming dead pigs; no dumping of pigs into the environment; no using untreated leftover feed to raise pigs) in disease prevention.
"The heads of agencies and localities must take direct responsibility if the epidemic spreads due to subjectivity and lack of responsibility in leadership and direction. If there is a violation, the Provincial People's Committee will resolutely handle it strictly" - Vice Chairman of Cao Bang Provincial People's Committee Hoang Van Thach emphasized.
Border localities are required to strictly control the transportation of animals and animal products across the border and increase vaccination. The authorities need to provide technical support, control the epidemic from the origin and ensure veterinary human resources at the facility after the merger.
However, in some localities, there are still scattered cases of small-scale livestock farmers throwing dead pigs into the river. On July 30, people in Tra Linh commune discovered many dead pigs floating on the river.
A day later, dead pigs continued to appear in Tan Giang ward, a situation that has many people worried about as the African swine fever in the area is complicated.
"If anyone is caught throwing a pig, they must be severely punished to deter him, if they continue to dump dead pigs like this, they will never be able to control the epidemic and re-herd" - Ms. Nong Thi Luong (residing in Tra Linh commune) commented.
In the face of the widespread African swine fever in the area, information from Ms. Ma Thi Tra My - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Cao Bang province, one of the reasons is that most of the livestock farming households in the province are small-scale, people have not yet applied biosafety livestock farming techniques, so when there is an epidemic, it will break out very quickly.
"Another reason is that when the epidemic broke out, the grassroots government did not take a strict action, and the grassroots staff did not have enough expertise to immediately control the outbreaks" - said the Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
It is known that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Cao Bang province has just established 10 working groups to strengthen the number of communes and wards in the area to support vaccination, disinfection techniques... all with the goal of controlling the epidemic soon.
Previously, on July 31, at a meeting to assess the growth of gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in the second quarter and the first 6 months of 2025, Chairman of the People's Committee of Cao Bang province Le Hai Hoa directed the agricultural sector to quickly control African swine fever to soon catch the herd.
