ILOILO – Two municipalities in this province are ready for the hog sentinelling program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the provincial government.
African Swine Fever (ASF)-hit Ajuy and Santa Barbara towns now have barangays with zero cases or zero hog population, based on the monitoring of their respective Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) and the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO), which are among the main criteria to qualify for the hog repopulation effort.
“May na-identify na kita nga areas nga puede for our sentinelling program,” said Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr.
Here are the identified barangays for the sentinelling program:
* Santa Barbara (four barangays) – San Sebastian, Nasugban, Cadagmayan Norte, and Cadagmayan Sur
* Ajuy (15 barangays) – Central, Progreso, Culasi, Silagon, Pedada, Pili, Poblacion, San Antonio, Barrido, Pinantan Diel, Malayuan, Puente Bunglas, Tanduyan, Luca, and Pinay Espinosa
“Other areas may hesitation because, based on criteria, dapat wala baboy ang barangay or kon may baboy man, dapat i-include sa sampling kag monitoring. Kon mag-positive, de-populate gid,” Dr. Darel Tabuada, PVO head, told Panay News yesterday.
The exact timeline of the program’s implementation is yet to be determined, Tabuada added.
PVO personnel will still have to conduct a final validation on the readiness of hog raisers, particularly if biosecurity measures are in place, including a footbath at the entrance of the pigpen, a screen around it, and a disinfection routine.
Each hog raiser will be given three sentinel piglets to raise; these will be monitored to see whether or not they get infected by the hog disease. They will also receive feeds for two months.
Within two months, the DA, PVO, and MAOs will monitor the sentinel piglets regularly by collecting blood samples to test for ASF infection.
If the sentinels get infected with ASF, they will be depopulated.
But if the results are negative, all hog raisers in that barangay get a go signal to start repopulating hogs.
“Kon clear na, pwede na kasagod basta comply lang sila sa biosecurity measures,” Tabuada said.
The DA-6 will provide the sentinel pigs in the two towns, but Tabuada said the provincial government would also procure so that more could avail themselves of the program.
Aside from Ajuy and Santa Barbara, the town of New Lucena also signified interest.
The PVO is currently waiting for the list of identified barangays that will avail themselves of the program.
Tabuada earlier disclosed that the DA-6 and the provincial government agreed to implement the repopulation program per barangay instead of per municipality for efficient monitoring.
As of Aug. 8, a total of 27 municipalities in the province have recorded cases of ASF: Oton, San Miguel, Alimodian, Santa Barbara, Leganes, New Lucena, Mina, Janiuay, Dumangas, Barotac Nuevo, Pototan, Dingle, Banate, Barotac Viejo, Ajuy, Concepcion, San Dionisio, Batad, Estancia, Balasan, Maasin, Badiangan, Dueñas, San Enrique, Zarraga, Lambunao, and Carles./PN
