Cambodia - Pigs crossing the border

06 Aug 2010
Meat Trade News Daily

Srun Pov, president of Association of Pigs Raising in Cambodia, said Wednesday that about 1,000 pigs are illegally imported from Viet Nam into Cambodia every day, and some of them are ill.

He said if such situation continued, the pig raising industry in Cambodia will be dead, adding that the pigs imported from Vietnam are priced at just over 6,000 riel (about 1.42 US dollars) per kilogram, about 3,000 riel cheaper than pigs raised in Cambodia.

Srun Pov, however, acknowledged that throughout Cambodia, a total of more than 4,000 pigs are needed for daily consumption, and in Phnom Penh alone it needs between 1,200 to 1,300 pigs, but the domestic pigs in Cambodia is not sufficient.

He said the country lacks about 700 to 800 pigs per day, but farmers are discouraged to raise pigs because of those imported ones from neighboring countries.

Cambodia allowed to import 800 pigs per day from Thailand, but as their price is higher than those imported from Vietnam, Thai pigs import have been stalled over the past months, said Srun Pov.

In May this year, Curtis Hundley, chairman of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) of the USAID said Cambodia had imported about one million pigs per year from Thailand alone and that had lost about 45 million US dollars a year to the farmers' pockets.

Cambodia is an agrarian country and rich in natural resources, while it still imports pigs, chicken and fish from neighboring countries as well as other household stuff and products for daily consumption.

Cambodia bans pig imports as blue-ear swine disease spreads

Thu, 05 Aug 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia has banned the import of pigs from Vietnam and Thailand after swine infected with blue-ear disease were smuggled into the country from neighbouring Vietnam and infected others.

The ban was announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday, who also asked market vendors to keep pork prices stable.

"I would like to appeal to provincial authorities, especially provinces near the borders of Vietnam and Thailand, to suspend pig imports," Hun Sen said, warning that the disease could spread rapidly through the pig population.

Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said the outbreak had followed an order by Hanoi instructing pig farmers in neighbouring Vietnam to slaughter infected swine.

But he said some farmers had instead dumped their pigs across the border in Cambodia at knock-down prices, spreading the disease, which is also known as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome.

Testing has revealed that hundreds of pigs have died from the disease in four provinces bordering Vietnam, and experts said blue-ear has probably spread to half of Cambodia's 24 provinces.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper the disease has the potential to cause significant losses to Cambodia's pig industry.

"We are talking somewhere between one or two million pigs, and each pig is worth about 100 dollars at market, so it's a huge industry here," said Curtis Hundley, who heads USAID's Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Agency in Cambodia.

Most rural families in Cambodia own a pig, making pork a staple source of protein along with fish and chicken.

In 2007 Cambodia banned pig imports from Thailand and Vietnam for eight months after a similar outbreak.

Officials Fear Swine Epidemic From Vietnam, Thailand

Family-raised pigs in Takeo (Photo: Leng Maly, RFA)

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Wednesday, 04 August 2010

“Animal health officials, military police and police, as well as customs officials, are working closely together to stop the illegal import of pigs,” Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said at Wednesday’s meeting. “This measure is to prevent an epidemic of the disease from one side [of the border] to the other.”

Hundreds of pigs have now died across nine provinces, from two types of disease that may have come from neighboring countries, animal health officials said Wednesday.

The pigs have all died in the last two weeks, fanning concern of an epidemic, officials said in a special meeting of provincial leaders in Phnom Penh. Authorities say they are concerned infected pigs are being smuggled in from Thailand and Vietnam.

Government officials are now appealing to provincial officials near the borders to step up efforts to stop the import of pigs for an unspecified amount of time.

“Animal health officials, military police and police, as well as customs officials, are working closely together to stop the illegal import of pigs,” Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said at Wednesday’s meeting. “This measure is to prevent an epidemic of the disease from one side [of the border] to the other.”

Blood tests by the Ministry of Agriculture’s department of animal health on more than 80 pigs turned up two causes for the deaths: porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome and classical swine fever.

Classical swine fever was found in samples from Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Cham and Takeo provinces. PRRS was found in samples from Kampong Chhnang, Kandal, Kampong Cham, Takeo and Prey Veng provinces, officials said.

Authorities from the ministry’s department of animal health have taken control of villages in nine provinces where they hope to contain the spread of the diseases.

A similar epidemic in China in 2006 killed more than 10,000 pigs before it was brought under control. In May, Vietnam and Laos experienced a similar outbreak, followed by another in Thailand last month.

Cambodia bans imports of pigs, fearing spread of disease

August 04, 2010
Xinhua

Cambodia authorities on Wednesday imposed ban on import of pigs from neighboring countries, fearing the spread of disease.

Srun Pov, president of Association of Pigs Raising in Cambodia, said Wednesday that he had raised the fear of the pig disease spread to Cambodia through the import from Vietnam to the authorities several weeks ago.

According to Srun Pov, Cambodia needs a total of more than 4, 000 pigs for daily consumption, and in Phnom Penh alone it needs between 1,200 to 1,300 pigs.

Cambodia is reported to have imported about one million pigs per year from Thailand alone.

No Viet pigs and Siamese pigs in Cambodia: Hun Xen

Hun Xen orders suspension of pig import to Cambodia

04 August 2010
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

On 04 August, Hun Xen ordered the Cambodian authority to suspend all pig imports from neighboring countries, in particular from Vietnam, due to an outbreak of pig disease. During a speech given at a distribution of diplomas to Build Bright students in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, Hun Xen ordered a suspension of all pig imports from abroad, he also called on the sellers not to increase the price of pork meat during this import suspension, at a time when the demand for local pork meat will increase.

Viet pigs banned in Svay Rieng

Pigs at a farm in Kampong Speu province on Thursday. Imports of pigs from Vietnam have been banned in Svay Rieng province. (Photo by: Uy Nousereimony)

Svay Rieng bans VN pig imports

Friday, 14 May 2010
David Boyle and Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

THE provincial governor of Svay Rieng province has banned all imports of pork and live pigs from Vietnam, fearing they carry serious diseases that could severely damage the local pig industry through contamination, as well as negatively harm the health of consumers.

Svay Rieng provincial Governor Chheang Am issued a statement on May 4 instructing all relevant authorities, including those operating border checkpoints, to “immediately cease all imports of pork and live pigs” from Vietnam, in order to prevent a potential “epidemic” of various diseases.

“Agriculture officials reported that there are pig diseases occurring in neighbouring countries, so the authority decided to ban their pigs until the situation is better,” he said.

Thursday, and added that outbreaks of two diseases – foot-and-mouth disease and porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome (PRRD) – had recently been detected in Vietnam.

Sek Vanny, deputy director of the Drug and Food Office at the Svay Rieng Health Department, said the ban had been imposed in part because Vietnamese pig-raisers had been deliberately and illegally dumping diseased pigs on the Cambodian market at cheap prices to get rid of the animals.

“If we cannot stop them, they will still import [the diseased pigs], which will transmit the disease to local pigs. And when people eat it, it will affect their health,” he said.

He added that, because the diseased Vietnamese pigs are relatively cheap, Cambodian villagers would continue to buy them unless all corridors through which they are illegally imported were blocked.

Nguyen Chi Dzung, a counsellor from the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh, said Thursday that he had heard no information of any disease outbreak in Tay Ninh, the Vietnamese province that borders Svay Rieng, but confirmed that such outbreaks had occurred in the past.

“In Vietnam, it’s [happened] many times – in the north, in the middle and the south,” he said. He later pointed to Vietnamese media reports on recent “epidemics” of foot-and-mouth-disease and PRRD, or blue ear, in north and south Vietnam, respectively.

He said it was well within the rights of local officials to ban Vietnamese pigs they consider contaminated by disease, though he said the ban should be lifted “when the situation no longer exists”.

This is not the first time disease-ridden pigs from neighbouring countries have allegedly been dumped on the Cambodian market, according to Curtis Hundley, chief of party at the USAID’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) economic development project, which helps develop local agriculture.

“This is the same thing that happened in 2007, and they were importing hundreds, if not thousands of pigs a day. At that time they had blue ear, gastrointestinal and foot-and-mouth,” he said.

The 2007 outbreak occurred in Vietnam and Thailand, countries that export major quantities of pigs into Cambodia, and prompted Prime Minister Hun Sen to ban all imports of pigs from both countries for a period of eight months, a move that was applauded by the Cambodian Pig Raisers Association.

Srun Pov, the deputy president of the association, said Wednesday that about 600 Vietnamese pigs, many of them carrying diseases, were being illegally smuggled into Cambodia every day, and called for a nationwide ban.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VONG SOKHENG

Cambodia Bans Imports Of Pigs And Pork From Neighboring Countries

2007-08-16
AP

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Cambodia is banning imports of live pigs and pork from neighboring countries to prevent the spread of disease and protect local farmers, officials said Thursday (Aug 16th).

The ban was imposed to prevent the spread of a disease that occurred in Vietnam, said Kao Phal, director of the Agriculture Ministry's animal health department.

He said there has been no outbreak of the disease _ porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome _ among pigs in Cambodia but called the ban a necessary precaution.

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the ban in a statement Monday (Aug 13th).

He said imports of pork and pigs from unspecified neighboring countries was "anarchical" and could trigger an outbreak of the disease in the country.

"It is also a barrier slowing down the development of family pig farming, which plays an important role in poverty reduction in Cambodia," Hun Sen said.

He ordered government agencies and border guards to stop all imports of live pigs and pork.

Imports of pigs for research or for breeding by local farmers must have prior permits from Cambodia's Agriculture Ministry, Hun Sen said in the statement.