By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Negros Occidental’s San Carlos City has intensified its monitoring against African swine fever (ASF).

According to City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office head Joe Alingasa, the city’s ASF Task Force ensures that travelers, passing through the San Carlos Port, are not carrying any pork byproducts.

The city ordinance, which seeks to strengthen the task force as part of the preventive measures to ensure the city remains ASF-free, has finally passed its third and final reading.

Earlier, veterinary services division chief, Dr. Jeff Reonal said the ordinance would be crucial as it would be the basis for the response of the city government against ASF.

Reonal said there is no recorded case of ASF in San Carlos after 500 pig blood samples tested negative as the city requested to be declared ASF-free within six months.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in Northern Negros Occidental also assists the Provincial ASF Task Force to block the entry of pork products into the province.

PCG-Northern Negros Occidental station chief, Commander Joe Luviz Mercurio said that they are checking the passengers’ cargo and baggage for any pork products in Bacolod City’s BREDCO and Banago ports.

Mercurio said they have recently met Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson with regards to the ongoing entry ban on pork and pork-related products.

He even hinted that they have started training some of their dogs to specifically sniff out pork products to further bolster the province’s anti-ASF protocols.

Lacson has issued an executive order banning the entry of pork products after neighboring Cebu province reported cases of ASF./DGB, WDJ