The truth behind 18 tons of infected pigs and the confession of a Hanoi man

On May 31, the Police Department for Investigation of Crimes of Corruptio.n, Economy, Smuggling and Environment – Ha Tinh Provincial Police – said that this unit has coordinated with functional forces to destroy all infected pigs that were recently discovered on a truck traveling through the area.

Previously, at noon on May 28, while performing patrol and control duties on the Ky Anh town bypass, passing through Ky Tan commune, the working group discovered a truck with suspicious signs and signaled to stop the vehicle for inspection. The vehicle had license plate 37H-024..., driven by driver Le Xuan Phu (born in 1990, residing in Nghe An province).

When opening the truck, the authorities discovered that the truck was transporting a large amount of livestock with no signs of safety. Specifically, the truck contained about 180 pigs with an estimated total weight of up to 18 tons. Many of them were dead, discolored, and gave off a strong stench, causing serious environmental pollution and raising concerns about the risk of disease spreading.

At the time of inspection, the driver could not present a veterinary quarantine certificate or any documents proving the legal origin of the pigs. Faced with unusual signs, the task force quickly coordinated with specialized units to take samples for testing to determine the disease status.

Test results later confirmed that all of the pigs were positive for the African swine fever virus - one of the most dangerous infectious diseases in pigs today. There is currently no vaccine or specific treatment for this disease, it can spread quickly, causing great damage to the livestock industry and affecting biosecurity. In this situation, the authorities urgently took measures to destroy all the pigs to avoid the risk of the disease spreading widely.

Working with the police, driver Le Xuan Phu stated that he was only hired to transport the above pigs, at the request of a person named Kieu Duc Lang, residing in Hanoi city.

Continuing the investigation, the authorities summoned Mr. Kieu Duc Lang to clarify the case. According to Mr. Lang, he discovered the advertisement for selling pigs on social networks, so he coordinated with an acquaintance in Nghe An province to buy these pigs with the purpose of transporting them to Quang Binh province for consumption to make a profit. Mr. Lang affirmed that when buying the goods, the seller of the pigs committed that these pigs were completely healthy and disease-free. Therefore, he did not know that the pigs carried dangerous pathogens.

"When we talked on the phone, they said the pigs were not infected. I also did not know if there was any infectio.n during the transportation process. When the authorities inspected and announced the test results showing that the pigs were infected with African swine fever, I realized the danger of the incident and agreed to let the authorities destroy all the pigs to avoid the risk of spreading the disease to the community," Mr. Lang told the investigation agency.

The case is currently being investigated and clarified by the functional units of Ha Tinh Provincial Police for handling in accordance with the provisions of law. Meanwhile, veterinary and environmental agencies have also taken measures to treat the environment and disinfect the related areas to prevent the spread of pathogens.

The incident once again sounded the alarm about the trade and transportation of animals of unknown origin and without quarantine, especially in the context of African swine fever still posing many potential risks of re-emergence in some localities. Authorities recommend that people should not disregard animal quarantine regulations for immediate economic benefits, and should proactively notify local authorities when detecting unusual livestock transportation and trading activities for timely prevention and handling.

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