BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – With San Enrique town’s hog population almost wiped out, hog industry losses due to diseases in Negros Occidental have reached P102.5 million, data from the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) showed.
The number of hog mortalities is now at 8,849, or 8.15 percent of the province’s hog population, the PVO said.
A total of 1,697 hog farmers from the second to fifth districts have been affected, it added.
San Enrique still topped the list of affected local government units (LGU) with 2,471 hog mortalities – 91.79 percent of its total hog population.
Valladolid town came in second with 1,758 hog deaths, followed by Bago City (1,251), Pontevedra (863), E.B. Magalona (832), and Pulupandan (677).
The Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 6 recently confirmed one African Swine Fever (ASF) case in Pulupandan.
It was from Barangay Mabini, according to the Veterinary Laboratory Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
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 for the next 15 days.
The province’s P6-billion swine industry is now in jeopardy with local officials scrambling to contain the spread of hog diseases particularly hog cholera and ASF./PN
