SAN JOSE, Antique – The Antique Small and Medium Economic Development (SMED) Council is urging this province to intensify biosecurity measures against the African swine fiver (ASF).
According to Vicente Lagunday, co-chairperson of the SMED Council, there is a need for the Antique provincial government and other concerned government agencies to strengthen their security measures in order to keep the hog industry in this province ASF-free
“There is a scare felt by the hog-raisers in the province with the ASF cases now in Luzon and Mindanao,” he said.
The hog raisers in this province are depopulating their backyard pig pens due to fear that the ASF will also affect their livestock.
“The tendency now for hog- raisers is to sell their swine before they could be affected by the ASF,” Lagunday stressed, saying that they (hog raisers) would rather earn a meager amount than have nothing.
“The current farm gate price of swine is P90 per kilo,” he added. However, without the ASF scare its price would go as much as P110 per kilo.
To ensure that the ASF will not affect this province or any other places in the region, there should be strict monitoring towards the entry of swine, pork and other pork-based products.
He noted that the Antique provincial government should obtain more manpower to do the monitoring of the entry of the said products in the arrival points of this province like in Hamtic, which is the first town next to San Joaquin, Iloilo and in Libertad, which is the boundary of Aklan province.
“Supermarkets have to be strictly monitored on the pork and pork by-products they are selling,” he said.
Lagunday also added that there should also be continuous monitoring of baggage in this province’s airport.
This province has a total hog inventory of 72,963 heads as of Jan. 1, 2018 and is ranked fifth in the hog industry profile of this region.(With a report from PNA/PN)
