DR Ambassador in Vietnam Urges Bauta Rojas to Not Politicize Swine Fever Vaccine

EL NUEVO DIARIO, SANTO DOMINGO.- The Dominican ambassador to Vietnam, Jaime Francisco Rodríguez, reiterated this Thursday his call to the senator of the People’s Force, Bautista Rojas, to “not politicize” the issue of the Vietnamese vaccine against African swine fever (PPA).

“We call on Senator Bautista Rojas and others, not to politicize the Vietnamese vaccine against African swine fever due to ignorance,” says a letter signed by Rodríguez after Rojas submitted a resolution on Wednesday May 24 so that the Minister of Agriculture, Limber Cruz, appear before the Senate and be questioned by the plenary, regarding the issue of the ASF and the current state of pork imports.

The diplomat pointed out that the issue is “very sensitive” for life and pig production in the Dominican Republic and countries around the world affected by this pandemic.

Similarly, he reiterated his call for good sense, objectivity and respect for science, since he said the NAVET-ASFVAC vaccine is authorized for circulation and application.

“No country, much less Vietnam, is going to cooperate with a vaccine that is not effective. Vietnam is internationally respected for its rigor, truth, science and seriousness,” said Rodríguez.

Likewise, he stressed that he respects and admires the investiture and person of Rojas, “for which reason I am in the duty of building you and others on issues that concern us.”

The ambassador referred to these terms after the senator for the Hermanas Mirabal province, alleged on the subject that “the situation is extremely worrying in Cibao, especially in the San Francisco de Macorís area. There is an important stopper of finished pork that is not wanted anywhere and the industrial pork slaughterhouses are closed and an explanation is not given to the national producers about this case.

On Wednesday, May 24, the legislator argued that the Dominican Republic has accepted the use of a vaccine that comes from the Asian continent, Vietnam, without allegedly being approved in Dominican swine farming.

For its part, the Dominican College of Veterinary Physicians (Colvet) and the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) asked President Luis Abinader to immediately order the Ministry of Agriculture to urgently suspend the importation and application to the Dominican swine population of a vaccine candidate or vaccine experiment brought from Vietnam with the intention of combating African Swine Fever.

In an open letter addressed to the president and signed by Colvet and the Faculty of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences of the Casa de Altos Estudios, they denounce that the Ministry of Agriculture unilaterally ordered the importation of a biological or vaccine candidate without prior consultation with the General Directorate of Livestock and its Directorate of Animal Health, Veterinary College, the academies headed by the FCAV-UASD or pig producers.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture, Limber Cruz, assured that the presence of ASF in the country is the product of the lack of attention to animal health that past administrations had.

“Upon the arrival of the Government, we announced African swine fever, a product precisely of the carelessness of the governments of that senator, who did not attend to animal health in the Dominican Republic,” the minister said at the time.

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