Who has the authority to announce an epidemic when swine fever occurs in a district in Vietnam?

Who has the authority to announce an epidemic when swine fever occurs in a district in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

Swine fever is one of the animal diseases on land that must be declared according to Circular 07/2016/TT-BNNPTNT.

Article 26 of the Law on Veterinary Medicine 2015 stipulates the following provisions on the declaration about the epidemics of terrestrial animals:

1. Principle of declaration about the epidemics of terrestrial animals:

a) The declaration about an animal epidemic shall be issued if the disease is subject to outbreak declaration and shall be issued intra vires, publicly, accurately and promptly;

b) Within 24 hours since the application for declaration on an animal epidemic is received, competent persons specified in clauses 4 and 5 of this Article shall issue the decision on the declaration on animal epidemic.

2. An epidemic of terrestrial animals shall be declared if all of the following conditions are met:

a) There is a hotspot of a disease on the List of animal diseases subject to outbreak declaration that tends to quickly spread out a large area or there is the discovery of a new agent of an infectious disease;

b) A diagnosis by an agency competent in animal disease diagnosing and testing is issued determining that the disease is on the List of animal diseases subject to outbreak declaration or is a new agent of an infectious disease.

3. The declaration about the diseases of terrestrial animals shall include:

a) The name of the disease or the new agent of an infectious disease; species of the infected animal;

b) The time when the animal epidemic occurs or the time when the new agent of the infectious disease is discovered;

c) The epidemic zones, high-risk zones, buffer zones;

d) Preventive measures for animal diseases.

4. Competence in issuance of the declaration about epidemics of terrestrial animals:

a) Presidents of People’s Committees of districts are in charge of giving decision on the announcement about animal epidemics on the basis of the request of veterinary authorities of districts if all the conditions specified in clause 2 of this Article are met and the epidemics occur within a district;

a) Presidents of People’s Committees of provinces are in charge of giving decision on the announcement about animal epidemics on the basis of the request of veterinary authorities of provinces if all the conditions specified in clause 2 of this Article are met and the epidemics occur in multiple districts in a province.

5. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural development are in charge of giving decision on the announcement about animal epidemics on the basis of the request of Department of Animal Health if all the conditions specified in clause 2 of this Article are met and the epidemics occur in multiples provinces; supervising, inspecting, expediting and monitoring the outbreak declaration of Presidents of People’s Committees of districts/provinces.

6. If the animal epidemic spreads out widely, seriously threatening human life or causes serious damage to economy and society, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural development shall report to the Prime Minister for requesting regulatory agencies to issue the declaration about the emergency according to the law provisions on emergency.

Therefore, according to the regulations, when meeting the conditions for the declaration of animal diseases on land, such as swine fever occurring within the district, the Chairman of the People's Committee of the district, based on the request of the district-level animal health management agency, decides to declare the disease.

Best Regards!