Amid outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in 17 localities nationwide, Vietnam is drafting a new stricter regulation on preventing and combating it, local newspaper Youth reported Tuesday.

Under the regulation drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the People's Committee of a city or province must declare the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in a commune, even in a hamlet when it is spotted there. Meanwhile, relevant agencies must cull all infected cattle, and ban the transport and trade of cattle in affected areas and surrounding ones.

Now, foot-and-mouth disease is hitting in 17 cities and provinces "in a scattered way, not spread quickly," the newspaper quoted the ministry's deputy minister Bui Ba Bong as saying. The localities include Bac Can, Yen Bai, Hoa Binh, Thai Nguyen and Hanoi in the northern region, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Phu Yen, Binh Dinh and Khanh Hoa in the central region, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Lam Dong and Dac Lac in the central highlands region, and Tra Vinh, Soc Trang and Vinh Long in the southern region.

To curb the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, the localities are intensifying control over cattle transport and trade in affected areas, offering financial assistance, ranging from 0.2-1 million Vietnamese dong (12.6-62.9 U.S. dollars), to raisers for each cattle culled, and vaccinating healthy cattle, mainly bulls, cows and pigs.

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

The central highlands province of Lam Dong on April 19 declared an 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 cattle in Duc Trong were infected with the disease, some 800 of them died.

Source:Xinhua