BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The town of Pulupandan in Negros Occidental logged one case of African Swine Fever (ASF), according to the Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 6.
However, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said he will wait for the official report from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
The BAI is the primary agency mandated to control animal diseases.
Lacson said his office has yet to receive the official report from BAI confirming the case, although they are now implementing the protocols set by the DA and BAI with regards to controlling swine diseases.
“We have a lot of healthy pigs that’s why let’s not be quick in declaring an ASF (outbreak). We are compassionate with our hog raisers,” the governor said.
Based on a clinical laboratory report issued by BAI’s Veterinary Laboratory Division in Quezon City, the ASF-positive hog was from Barangay Mabini, Pulupandan.
Of the four blood samples collected on May 23, only one tested positive for ASF as reported by the BAI on Tuesday, May 30.
The province is currently taking measures, particularly isolating hogs in Barangay Mabini.
The 500-meter radius protocol is imposed in the village and hogs will be observed for the next 15 days.
If there are no repeat incidents of infection,it can be confirmed that the case was successfully isolated.
If not, Lacson said they will proceed with BAI’s protocol of a seven-kilometer and 10-kilometer radius.
The governor added the provincial government has protocols in place to address the worst case scenario.
“There will be no in and out (of hogs) in the area where there is ASF. Once the area is declared a red zone you’re limited within your area that’s why we have to be very careful,” Lacson said.
In the meantime, Lacson is encouraging depopulation of hogs in the province, stating that hog raisers who are into fattening should no longer wait for the ideal weight and dispose their hogs early while they are still healthy.
Meanwhile, the BAI has released its confirmatory test result affirming that two pigs from Bacolod City’s Barangay Taculing were indeed ASF-positive.
At least six hogs have also died in the city’s Barangay Tangub recently.
Barangay Captain Noli Villarosa of Tangub said the initial test by the DA-6 showed a blood sample from one of the pigs tested positive for ASF, although the BAI confirmatory test result has yet to be released.
At present, Villarosa said they are planning to buy hogs in the village at P3,000 each to assist the raisers./PN
