Since the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) confirmed its first ASF outbreak on 19 February 2019, all provinces/municipalities experienced outbreaks. Since the beginning of this year, as of 10 March, a total of 68 ASF outbreaks were reported in 22 provinces/municipalities and nearly 3 000 pigs have been culled to stop the spread of the disease, according to an article published by the Vietnamese government online newspaper.

There are several reasons for the outbreak in this country all of them intertwined and equally risky, creating favorable conditions for pathogens. Among the most recurrent are first, the African swine fever virus has the ability to survive for a long time in the environment, second, household farming still accounts for a large proportion of pork production meaning incapability to ensure biosecurity and breeding requirements and third, the weather in the inter-seasonal period is detrimental to the health of livestock herds.

And if it was not enough, there is also the mobility issue, the transportation, trade and smuggling of animal products, especially in the northern border provinces which arises the risk of spreading diseases and the lack of a proper vaccination scheme that leaves the newer herds unvaccinated or ran out of immunity.

Fortunately, not everything is lost, and a ray of hope was given by the trials of the ASF Live vaccine, developed and produced by AVAC Vietnam Co. Ltd. The Vietnamese government recently reported that more than 600,000 doses of the AVAC ASF vaccine have been administered in field trials since July last year. Because of the highly favorable results, the Vietnamese government will also start its nationwide distribution of the vaccine to help the local hog farmers.