PigRisk Mid-term Review Workshop

To look back and review the up-to-date achievements, identifying challenges and set out project’s plan until end of 2017, the research team comprised of researchers from Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA) held the mid-term review workshop for the project “Reducing disease risks and improving food safety in small holder value chains in Vietnam” (PigRisk) from 8 to 11 March 2016. The review was also attended by ACIAR representatives and ILRI reseachers.

The project which started in 2012 aims at improving the livelihoods of rural and urban poor in Vietnam through improved opportunities and incomes from pig value chains as a result of reduced risks associated with pork-borne diseases. Since then, the project has undergone a number of activities to review literatures of animal health and food safety and risk assessment of economic, value chain, quantitative microbial and chemical risk assessment of the pork and pig value chain. Based on the assessment results from qualitative/quantitative analysis and community surveys, the team has proposed the intervention model to reduce disease risks related to pork contamination.

In-door discussion at ILRI Vietnam office. Photo credit: Hanh Le/ILRI, Vietnam

The CENPHER/HSPH research team has been completed the assessment for the selected microbial and chemical hazards along the pig value chains. The model of quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA), the first made on this topic for Vietnam, was also developed and applied to estimate the health risks related to pork consumption. The results emphasized the high contamination of hazards along the pork value chain (farm, slaughterhouse, market), for instance 44% Salmonella contamination in market pork. Residues of prohibited veterinary drugs in feeds, meat, liver, and kidney were recorded such as B-agonist (salbutamol) and antibiotic (sulfamethazine). QMRA results for Salmonella showed a high risk of incidence for the assessed population. Regarding the cost of illness of diarrhea case, the average costs per treatment episode and per hospitalization day for foodborne diarrhea case were US$107 and US$ 34 respectively.    

Visiting a livestock farming in Hung Yen province . Photo credit: Ngan Tran/CENPHER

The Mid-term Review week started with the in-door meeting at the ILRI’s office, followed by two day field visits in the study provinces of Hung Yen and Nghe An.