By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The pigs which tested positive for African swine fever (ASF) in Bacolod City’s Barangay Taculing were bought from a commercial swine farm in the neighboring Negros Occidental’s Bago City.

This was revealed in an interview on Aksyon Radyo-Bacolod by Bago City Veterinary Officer, Dr. Martin Torres on Saturday, May 27.

Torres believed that the ASF-positive pigs may have been infected when they were already in Barangay Taculing, as the commercial farm in Bago had a certificate issued by the Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas (DA-6) proving it is ASF-free.

The certificate is valid until next month.

Torres said they have stepped up their checkpoints at several entry points in the city and hog shippers are required to present a valid veterinary certificate.

If the shipment fails to present the certificate, it will immediately be ordered to return to its point of origin.

Meanwhile, hog blood samples were sent to the Provincial Animal Diagnostic Laboratory at the Panaad Park in Bacolod for testing.

So far, samples sent by authorities have revealed that the cause of the hog deaths in the city was due to hog cholera.

On Friday, May 26, the DA-6 confirmed that the samples from two pigs in Bacolod were ASF-positive.

Mayor Alfredo Benitez said the samples will undergo confirmatory tests.

Benitez and Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson are also due to release a joint executive order for ASF.

However, Lacson said so far he has not received any further reports of ASF cases from other areas in Negros Occidental./DGB, WDJ