The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development cited the risk of African Swine Flu (ASF) in a decision to suspend pork imports from Poland and Hungary starting September 20.

Viet Nam will still import pork shipped before the September 20 cutoff, but they will be inspected by the Department of Animal Health.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan said the measure was taken to mitigate the risk of an AFS outbreak.

The decision came after the World Organisaion of Animal Health (OIE) reported 17 cases of the ASF virus in dead wild boars in Heves and Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg this year.

The virus has also been found in 315 wild boars and 162 domestic pigs across five Polish provinces.

African Swine Flu (ASF) is a type of infectious fever that has a mortality rate over 90 per cent in pigs. There is no known cure.

Although the disease is not dangerous to humans, it has the potential to spell massive economic losses across the pork industry.

Viet Nam will restart imports from the two countries as soon as they meet OIE requirements to declare the ASF outbreak has ended

More than 560,000 pigs have been culled across Europe and Asia since the end of 2017 to prevent the spread of the disease, with notable outbreaks reported by OIE in China and Estonia.

The disease is moving southward through China, into provinces near Viet Nam.

There are various ways ASF can spread, including through contaminated feed and direct contact between pigs.

On September 11, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed a document urging action to prevent the disease from entering Viet Nam. To that end, the government banned the transport, trade, slaughter and consumption of all pork products of unknown origins. Border control checks were increased, and cities and provinces were asked to crack down on illegal imports. – VNS