BACOLOD City – To safeguard the province’s multibillion-peso hog industry, Gov. Eugenio Jose “Bong” Lacson is imposing stricter detection and biosecurity rules to prevent African swine fever (ASF) from entering Negros Occidental.
Lacson, ASF task force chairman, and Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena inspected supermarkets, storage plants and ports of entry last week.
“We’re going around, checking if supermarkets are compliant. It’s very important that there’s cooperation. We will also conduct constant monitoring,” the governor said.
He urged the public to buy locally-produced pork rather than going for imported ones.
On Aug. 22, Lacson visited the Bacolod-Silay Airport in Silay City, Negros Occidental to monitor the Provincial Veterinary Office’s (PVO) quarantine center.
He also went inside the arrival area, where the PVO has set up a footbath and installed signage reminding travelers not to bring pork to the country.
Before proceeding to the airport, Lacson dropped by neighboring Talisay City, where he and Decena inspected the canned goods and meat sections of the Super Metro supermarket and were informed that the store had already pulled out meat products imported from countries affected by the ASF.
In the afternoon, Lacson and Decena
checked two supermarkets in Bacolod.
At the Lopue’s Value Store inside the 888 China Town Square mall, they found
stocks of Ma Ling canned luncheon meat and had these pulled out from the
shelves.
Ma Ling is one of the nine brands listed on the Food and Drug Administration Order 2019-046, which directs all importers, distributors, retail outlets and other dealers to immediately recall all pork meat products imported from countries suspected to be affected by the ASF virus.
The team also checked the Bacolod storage plant of an importer of pork from Europe and Canada, which was found compliant.
Lacson’s Executive Order 2019-23 directs the task force to carry out the proper implementation of the ASF prevention and control measures, enhance biosecurity practices in all ports of entry and swine production facilities, and coordinate and cooperate with the appropriate national government agencies in case of a suspected outbreak.
As of January this year, Negros Occidental remains the country’s number one producer of backyard swine. The province has a total swine population of 508,709 heads – 451,035 of these are from backyard raisers and 57,674 from the commercial sector. (With PNA/PN)
