The shortage of grassroots veterinary forces

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said at the conference that Viet Nam was still facing a major shortage of human resources in veterinary medicine.

Some localities turned Animal Health departments and stations into agricultural service centres.

This model was new but the centres hardly had professional veterinary workers, Tien said, adding that service centres must have funds to operate.

“Without funding, they fail to employ workers to spray drugs to prevent diseases, no people to vaccinate animals. It would be also impossible to control the epidemic and build a disease-free area which provides agricultural products for market,” Tien said.

In addition, when the agricultural service centres were established, about 6,200 veterinary staff lost jobs, which thereby seriously affected disease prevention and control, he said.

Tien said that in 2003 and 2004, Vietnam had to destroy nearly 50 million poultry due to avian flu.

The disease killed 46 people, causing a loss of 0.5 per cent of GDP. 

In another case, the outbreak of African swine fever killed more than 6 million pigs, causing damage up to VND30 trillion. The loss of 10 per cent of pork production left a direct impact on the macroeconomy as the consumer price index (CPI) in early 2020 stood at 6.73 per cent, the highest rate in many years.

Tien analyzed that at present, animal husbandry accounts for 25.2 per cent, and fishery accounts for 26.2 per cent of the total value of the agricultural sector. The fisheries and livestock sectors thereby directly affect the targets that the Party, the National Assembly and the Government assigned for the agricultural sector. Accordingly, the country’s agriculture targeted to get a growth rate of 2.5-2.8 per cent this year. The export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products was expected to reach 50 billion USD in 2022.

"The role of the veterinary industry, veterinary agencies, and veterinary organisation systems will determine the development of livestock and aquaculture in particular and the agricultural industry in general", Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien emphasized.

According to Deputy Minister Tien, with the Prime Minister's Decision No. 414/QD-TTg approving the project to strengthen the capacity of the system of specialized veterinary management agencies at all levels, from 2021 to 2030, localities nationwide would implement and complete the veterinary system. In the coming time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs and other ministries and sectors to continue directing provinces and cities to strictly implement Decision 414 of the Prime Minister, Directive 34 of the Secretariat, Resolution 100, Decree No. Resolution 134 of the National Assembly and the report of the National Assembly Party Committee to the Politburo and the Secretariat on the improvement of the veterinary system at all levels by the Law on Veterinary Medicine.

Vaccines - effective and breakthrough solution

According to the report of the Department of Animal Health, in 2021, the Government, the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directed drastically and synchronously solutions to prevent and control terrestrial animals diseases, especially in the context of COVID-19.

Accordingly, it has controlled well all kinds of terrestrial animal diseases, creating favorable conditions for livestock production with a total herd of more than 515 million poultry (up 5.8 percent), 28 million pigs (up 7 per cent), 6.5 million cows ( 375,200 dairy cows, up 13.2 per cent), buffalo herd decreased by 2.4 per cent. The total output of live meat for slaughter is about 6.7 million tons, the output of poultry eggs is 17.5 billion.

In 2021, despite the difficulties caused by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevention of aquatic diseases continued to achieve important results, especially when the aquaculture area hit by diseases was about 5,608 ha, a decrease of 33 per cent compared to the same period in 2020.

Dangerous diseases on farmed seafood continued to be controlled, especially not allowing dangerous and emerging diseases to enter the country.

More than 21,190 ha of aquaculture area were damaged last year including 5,608 ha damaged by diseases, marking a decrease of 54.2 per cent over the same period in 2020. 

“In the coming years, to achieve the goals of the agricultural sector, especially the goal of exporting agro-forestry-fishery products to reach US$50 billion, it is necessary to recognise the important role of the grassroots veterinary system and disease prevention not only in livestock and aquatic products but also in preventing diseases that spread to humans.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would direct the Department of Animal Health to organise symposiums on disease prevention and control in key agricultural production areas such as the Mekong Delta," said Tien.

To tackle the consequences caused by the disease, the agricultural sector needs to solve many problems. First, the Prime Minister's Decision No. 414/QD-TTg must be implemented properly. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has submitted to the Prime Minister for approval four projects on disease control, digital transformation, food safety monitoring, vaccine and veterinary medicine administration.

Second, it is necessary to promote research and the production of vaccines. Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien said that, besides biological products, vaccination was the most effective disease prevention solution.

“The African swine fever has happened for more than 100 years, the whole world has no vaccine against it. But Vietnam will announce the vaccine and other ones against the skin rash, the avian flu and the vaccine for seafood. Those are breakthrough solutions,” said Tien.

Third, it is necessary to develop disease-free zones to meet criteria imposed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). 

Fourthly, it is needed to build a bio-secure breeding process to the level that disease can be prevented.

Fifthly, environmental factors are also very important. Every year, about 65 million tons of waste was discharged from the livestock industry, not to mention that every 1 kg of shrimp produces 400-500 grams of sludge.

“Therefore, this issue needs to be solved thoroughly to build a chain of organic agricultural production, ecological agriculture and ensure both development and sustainability, enhancing added value in line with the spirit of the Prime Minister's Decision 899 on restructuring the agricultural sector", emphasized Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien.

Deputy Minister Tien said that currently, three enterprises were focusing on researching a vaccine against African swine fever. They are Central Veterinary Medicine Joint Stock Company NAVETCO, RTD Group Joint Stock Company, and Dabaco Vietnam Group Joint Stock Company.

“Up to now, the testing work has been completed. By the end of the first quarter or at the beginning of the second quarter, the vaccine will be ready for announcement. We can believe that the level of protection, length of immunity, the effectiveness of vaccination will be very high," said Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien.

Translated by Hien Anh