According to the latest official report from the the Department of Fisheries and Surveillance (DOF) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, during the first ten months of 2025, a total of 285 communes and wards across 18 provinces and centrally governed cities officially declared outbreaks of aquatic animal diseases. The total affected aquaculture area reached 6,746 hectares, accounting for approximately 1.49% of the country’s total aquaculture farming area at the time of reporting. While these figures reflect initial success in disease containment efforts and demonstrate that the damage ratio remains relatively low compared to previous years, they also highlight persistent significant challenges in forecasting accuracy, early-warning capabilities, real-time surveillance systems, inter-agency coordination mechanisms, and overall response efficiency. These shortcomings demand comprehensive, systematic, and long-term solutions in the coming period.
Current status of aquatic animal diseases: alarming signals from real data
Data extracted from the National Veterinary Epidemiology Information System (VAHIS), which is managed and operated by the Department of Animal Health, indicate that as of the end of October 2025, 285 communes/wards in 18 provinces and cities nationwide had officially reported and declared aquatic disease outbreaks. The cumulative affected farming area stood at 6,746 hectares. Several provinces recorded particularly high proportions of diseased area relative to their total aquaculture surface, including Vĩnh Long (40.6%), Hưng Yên (17.7%), Ho Chi Minh City (15.46%), Quảng Ninh (12.19%), and Gia Lai (7.11%).
The three most heavily impacted farmed species continue to be black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon), white leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), and tra catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus). The predominant diseases observed include Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease (AHPND, also known as Early Mortality Syndrome – EMS), White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV), Infectious Myonecrosis Virus (IMNV), necrotizing hepatopancreatitis, and various bacterial infections in tra catfish such as bacterial septicemia, motile aeromonad septicemia, Edwardsiellosis, and hepatic-renal abscesses.
The DOF has noted that disease outbreaks remain scattered geographically but exhibit a clear increasing trend during transitional weather periods and seasonal changes when environmental parameters (temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, etc.) fluctuate unfavorably, creating stress conditions that weaken the immune systems of cultured aquatic animals.
Despite proactive preventive measures implemented in major aquaculture hubs such as Cà Mau, An Giang, and Đồng Tháp provinces, surveillance and disease detection at grassroots level are still largely reactive, meaning that monitoring activities are often intensified only after significant mortality and economic losses have already occurred.
Mr. Nguyễn Văn Hữu, Acting Head of the Aquatic Animal Disease Control Division under the DOF, emphasized that current disease-control efforts continue to face numerous obstacles, primarily stemming from the absence of a nationwide proactive surveillance and early-warning network. Localities still lack an integrated, interconnected national data-sharing platform, resulting in delayed information updating, slow inter-regional data exchange, and consequently reduced capacity for accurate forecasting and rapid emergency response.
Existing weaknesses and bottlenecks in the disease management and surveillance system
One of the most critical institutional issues at present is the lack of unification in the state management apparatus for aquatic animal health and veterinary services. Responsibility for environmental monitoring and water-quality surveillance in aquaculture falls under fisheries management agencies, whereas disease prevention, control, and veterinary activities are assigned to veterinary authorities. This administrative separation creates significant gaps in data linkage, information flow, and operational coordination, making it extremely difficult to establish an effective, integrated early-warning system.
Furthermore, a considerable number of legal normative documents and regulations concerning aquatic animal disease management have not yet been revised and synchronized with the new organizational structure of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment following the official merger and establishment of the DOF on 1 March 2025. This has led to overlapping responsibilities, unclear delineation of authority, and confusion in task assignment among central agencies, local authorities, and technical units.
Currently, only a limited number of laboratories and institutions across the country are officially designated and accredited for aquatic disease diagnostic testing, while the demand for rapid confirmation, official declaration, and forensic identification of disease outbreaks is rising sharply. In practice, unauthorized announcements of disease occurrence by certain individuals or organizations without official verification have caused considerable confusion, distorted official statistics, disrupted domestic consumption, and negatively affected export markets, especially shipments destined for the European Union, the United States, Japan, and other stringent markets that impose rigorous sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements and traceability standards.
Financial resources allocated for surveillance, prevention, and control activities at provincial and district levels remain severely constrained. Many localities are able to conduct routine monitoring only for the most common diseases affecting black tiger shrimp, white leg shrimp, and tra catfish, while surveillance coverage for marine finfish, mollusks, and high value indigenous aquatic species is still inadequate.
Although research and development of aquatic vaccines and biological products have been initiated by several national institutes, commercialized products remain extremely scarce, particularly vaccines targeting major pathogens of tra catfish and marine fish species.
Building a unified management system, digital database, and early-warning mechanism
In response to the above-mentioned limitations and challenges, the DOF has proposed a comprehensive set of strategic orientations and practical solutions aimed at establishing a proactive, science-based, and technology-driven disease-management framework that ensures safe, efficient, and sustainable aquaculture development.
First, the sector has identified the urgent need to restructure and consolidate the state management apparatus for aquatic animal health into a single, unified command chain from central to local levels, thereby ensuring clear accountability, streamlined decision-making, and elimination of overlapping or conflicting responsibilities. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is requested to conduct a thorough review, amendment, and full synchronization of all legal documents governing aquatic veterinary activities in accordance with the new organizational model and current production realities.
Second, construction of a National Aquatic Animal Disease Epidemiology Database for the 2025 – 2026 period has been designated as a top priority task. This centralized digital platform will interconnect research institutes, diagnostic laboratories, private-sector testing facilities, regional centers, and provincial authorities, laying the technological foundation for widespread application of information technology, artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, and digital transformation in disease surveillance, risk analysis, outbreak prediction, and decision-support systems. This initiative represents a fundamental shift from the traditional reactive “post-outbreak response” approach to genuine proactive disease management.
Third, the DOF strongly advocates enhanced integration and linkage between environmental monitoring programs and disease control activities, together with the establishment of formal coordination mechanisms involving fisheries agencies, veterinary authorities, local governments, and relevant stakeholders. Provinces and cities are encouraged to accelerate the development of disease-free zones and compartments, and to issue official certifications for disease-free aquaculture establishments (ATDB – An Toàn Dịch Bệnh). As of October 2025, nearly 1,200 farming establishments nationwide have been granted ATDB certification, marking an increase of over 20% compared to the same period in 2024.
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Additionally, research, production, registration, and application of vaccines and biological products for aquatic animal disease prevention will continue to receive high priority and increased investment. The DOF is collaborating closely with leading research institutions such as the Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 2 (RIA2), Nha Trang University, and several major biotechnology companies to conduct field trials and register new-generation vaccines for tra catfish, tilapia, and white leg shrimp.
Strengthening coordination among central authorities, local governments, enterprises, and farmers
The DOF will continue to provide policy advice to the Ministry in finalizing a centralized and unified national management system for aquatic animal diseases, while taking full responsibility for coordinating nationwide surveillance and control activities and developing the national epidemiology database.
Provincial and municipal Departments of Agriculture and Environment are required to strengthen their aquatic veterinary units, ensure adequate human resources and budgetary support, and proactively propose medium- and long-term funding plans to provincial People’s Committees for sustained disease prevention and control programs. They must also intensify on-site inspections and provide technical guidance to farmers on biosecurity protocols and mandatory disease reporting procedures.
Research institutes, universities, diagnostic laboratories, and private enterprises are strongly encouraged to apply for official designation as aquatic disease testing facilities, while strictly adhering to regulations on result announcement and information disclosure to avoid market disruption. All entities are requested to share monitoring data with competent authorities to facilitate early warning and evidence-based policy formulation.
For farmers and the broader aquaculture community, raising awareness about biosecurity principles and strict compliance with disease-reporting obligations are considered decisive factors for success. Farmers are urged not to disseminate unverified disease information and to actively participate in disease-free establishment and zone certification programs, thereby contributing to building a transparent, responsible, and internationally reputable image for Vietnamese aquaculture products.
According to the latest statistics released in November 2025, more than 5,000 hectares of shrimp farming areas and 3,200 hectares of tra catfish farming areas have registered to develop disease-safe zone models, with nearly half of them already meeting provincial-level certification standards. This direction is regarded as highly appropriate for enhancing competitiveness and satisfying stringent import requirements of major markets such as China, the European Union, and the United States.
Conclusion
Aquatic animal disease management is not merely a technical task for the sector; it is directly linked to rural economic development, farmers’ livelihoods, food safety assurance, environmental protection, and ecological sustainability. In the context of accelerating climate change, extreme weather events, and increasingly unpredictable water pollution, establishing a modern, unified, proactive, and digitally empowered disease-management system has become an inevitable strategic imperative.
In line with the sector’s roadmap for 2026 – 2030, the DOF aims to complete a nationwide proactive surveillance network, fully integrate environmental, epidemiological, and production data on a digital platform, achieve early-warning and rapid-response capabilities, minimize economic losses, and significantly improve overall production efficiency. By 2030, the ambitious targets are to have more than 70% of concentrated aquaculture zones certified as disease-safe and 100% of key farming establishments implementing regular environmental monitoring programs.
The comprehensive solutions proposed by the DOF from institutional reform, digital transformation, enhanced inter-sectoral collaboration, to community awareness raising - are all geared toward building a modern, resilient, and sustainable Vietnamese aquaculture industry capable of withstanding future challenges, securing livelihoods for millions of farming households, ensuring food safety for domestic and international consumers, and elevating Vietnam’s global standing in the seafood trade.
Hải Đăng