This reflects our mood as we meet poultry farmers in two communes of Chi Linh District (Hai Duong), where an outbreak has just been announced.
Overwhelmed by Debt
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Culling chickens at a household in Chi Minh Commune (Hai Duong) |
At 12:30 PM on November 11, a day after Hai Duong announced an outbreak in five communes, Mr. Duong Van Dang’s family (Nero Hamlet, Chi Minh Commune, Chi Linh District) had not yet eaten lunch. “There’s no appetite left”—Mr. Dang said. He and his children sat idly in the house, waiting for local officials to come and cull the 6,000 chickens belonging to his three sons. Mr. Dang’s wife, who was attending a wedding at a neighbor’s house, rushed home upon hearing that the commune would cull their sons’ flock, her face filled with despair.
Having relied on poultry farming for 20 years, Mr. Dang’s seven children grew up thanks to chickens. All seven, including three living with their parents, are continuing the family’s poultry farming legacy. Mr. Dang’s family is considered one of the largest poultry farming households in Chi Linh District.
In total, his seven children raise over 10,000 chickens. All of these chickens were to be culled on the afternoon of November 11. The debts from last year’s outbreak have not yet been settled, and now a new debt has piled on, estimated to exceed 200 million VND, with no clear plan on how to repay it.
According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Tien, Deputy Secretary of Chi Minh Commune, the entire commune has over 15,000 birds. On November 11, the commune culled over 10,000 and plans to cull all poultry in the coming days. As we traveled through the villages in the commune, loudspeakers broadcasted updates about the outbreak and the culling plan. At the entrances of the villages, signs warning about the avian influenza outbreak were also displayed to alert residents.
Living with the Fear of Disease
Unlike Chi Minh Commune, the avian influenza outbreak in Cong Hoa Commune (Chi Linh) mainly affected waterfowl. The source of the outbreak is still unknown, but it is known that Cong Hoa is on the transportation route for poultry from Yen Dung (which has experienced an outbreak in Bac Giang Province) to Quang Ninh and Hai Phong.
When we visited the home of Mrs. Bui Thi Di (Cau Dong Hamlet), the regret was evident on her face. Her family raised 350 ducks, which could have sold for about 20,000 VND each. Before she could sell them, the ducks began to die one after another. By the day Hai Duong announced the outbreak, all of Mrs. Di’s ducks had been culled. She knew nothing about compensation for the culling and calculated that she already owed around ten million VND for feed and breeding costs.
Mrs. Di’s sorrow deepened upon hearing that 150 egg-laying ducks belonging to her son were also culled due to illness. These ducks had just begun to lay eggs at the start of November, and despite being vaccinated, they continued to die. Since the culling, her son has been morose and uninterested in doing anything.
While Mrs. Di lamented the loss of her ducks, Mrs. Do Thi Tin’s family (Chi Nghia 1 Hamlet, Cong Hoa Commune) lived in fear of the disease spreading. Her flock of 500 ducks had not shown any signs of illness, and if all went well, she could profit about five million VND.
However, since the outbreak was announced, the ducks, which were previously kept in pens in the fields, had to be moved back to live with her family in their home. The 500 ducks, each weighing about 2 kg, were cramped into a corner of the house. Unable to forage for themselves, they consume 450,000 VND worth of feed daily and produce a significant amount of waste, creating a foul odor as there is no cleaning solution available. While she worries about not being able to sell her ducks, Mrs. Tin fears even more that if the ducks contract the disease, it might spread to humans.
Like all other poultry farming households in the district, Mrs. Tin’s family faces a debt that runs into millions from delayed payments for breeding stock and feed. She stated, “With the disease situation like this, even if we sell, no one will buy. This season is bound to incur losses; we only hope the government can provide some support to alleviate our debt burden.”
KHIEU HUNG
