By Mae Singuay and Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
After logging two African swine fever (ASF) cases from a backyard piggery in Bacolod City’s Barangay Taculing last week, the city task force has strengthened border control and monitoring measures to prevent the spread of hog illness.
Task force head, city legal officer Romeo Carlos Ting, Jr. said they are strictly implementing Memorandum Order 79, issued by Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez on May 22.
In his memorandum, Benitez directed the task force to conduct border control and inspection within the city’s territorial jurisdiction, in light of hog cholera infections reported in different cities in Negros Occidental.
They are also tasked to conduct investigations and institute control protocols against ASF in suspected areas, part of the memo cited.
Benitez said the task force should ensure stringent import policies and border control to prevent the entry of infected live pigs or pork products into the area.
On May 26, two pigs were reportedly tested positive for ASF.
“Based on the laboratory test we conducted, the result was positive. But the result will still be confirmed by the Bureau of Animal Industry in Manila,” Benitez earlier said.
Ting said the city government still awaits the confirmatory results.
Last week, six pigs — four from Barangay Felisa and two from Barangay Taculing — were subjected to ASF testing, he said.
Based on laboratory tests, the hog blood samples from Taculing turned out positive.
Ting said the task force conducted the survey within the 500-meter radius of an ASF-affected area, but there were no reported hog deaths so far.
He considered the two cases as isolated.
The Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas informed them that they would send a laboratory machine for ASF to the city government.
Capitol considers options
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said yesterday the provincial government is also considering options to contain the spread of ASF.
According to Lacson, they are doubling monitoring efforts with local government units in the province.
Among the solutions being eyed by Lacson is to temporarily stop backyard hog breeding.
He said if the hog population remains low, it also lowers the chance of ASF to spread further.
Negros Occidental’s P6 billion swine industry is facing a serious threat not just from ASF, but also from hog cholera.
Data from the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) showed 6,379 hog deaths were recorded in the province as of Friday, May 26.
A total of 5,894 hog deaths were reported in the fourth district, particularly in the towns of San Enrique with 2,413, Valladolid (1,202), Pontevedra (594), and Pulupandan (507); and the cities of Bago (1,166) and La Carlota (282).
The second district recorded 121 swine deaths; 682 in the third district, with 591 in E.B. Magalona town; and 77 in the fifth district, particularly in Hinigaran and Binalbagan towns.
The PVO said hog deaths represent around 5.88 percent of the province’s total hog population and caused an estimated P75.5 million in losses./ With a report from PNA /MS, DGB, WDJ