A delegation from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) worked with Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on February 10 morning to discuss support for the Southeast Asian nation in African swine fever (ASF) vaccine research, the national broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV) reported. According to the meeting, the USDA has transferred the successfully-researched virus without toxic genes to Vietnam, which will help research and soon produce ASF vaccine in the Southeast Asian country. The USDA is committed to supporting both countries’ technicians to study and build a vaccine quality evaluation procedure to help the country soon issue a testing criteria after successful research. According to the Department of Animal Health, under the MARD, Vietnam has so far culled around six million hogs due to ASF with a total weight of 400,000 tons, equal to 10% of the total hog weight. (VTV)
