The foot-and-mouth disease has spread to 17 cities and provinces across Vietnam, local newspaper Vietnam Economic Times reported Monday.

The disease has hit 150 communes in five northern localities of Bac Can, Yen Bai, Hoa Binh, Thai Nguyen and Hanoi, five central provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Phu Yen, Binh Dinh and Khanh Hoa, four central highlands provinces of Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Lam Dong and Dac Lac, and three southern provinces of Tra Vinh, Soc Trang and Vinh Long.

Lam Dong on April 19 reported the outbreak in Duc Trong district after samples from pigs in the district were tested positive to the type O of foot-and-mouth virus. By that time, over 2,250 pigs and bulls in Duc Trong were infected with the disease, some 800 of them died.

The number of pigs, bulls and buffaloes hit by foot-and-mouth disease in Lam Dong has risen to nearly 4,000, of which nearly 1, 500 died, by late April. Meanwhile, the disease had stricken nearly 300 bulls, buffaloes, and pigs in Quang Nam.

Last week, the Vietnamese government asked relevant sectors and localities to take urgent measures to combat and prevent the disease.

Source: Xinhua