BACOLOD City – The Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) of Negros Occidental is preparing to establish checkpoints to prevent the entry of pork products into the province.
This action follows Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson’s issuance of a new executive order (EO), which imposes a total ban on hogs and pork by-products from eight areas, including the capital, Bacolod City.
Dr. Placeda Lemana, PVO head, said they have already discussed the new protocols to be enforced and identified the personnel who will oversee their implementation.
Their monitoring efforts would focus on towns and cities bordering Bacolod, such as Talisay and Bago cities, and the town of Murcia.
Lemana underscored the importance of preventing the transportation of hogs and pork products to avoid the recurrence of African swine fever (ASF).
Several hog raisers in Negros Occidental have begun restocking. The province aims to ensure compliance with biosecurity measures, said Lemana.
“We are very strict because we are in the sentinel stage; we don’t want to get infected again. We want to avoid repeating last year’s scenario, when our hog population was nearly decimated,” she explained.
The sentinel program is a science-based strategy for hog repopulation in ASF-affected areas, designed to ensure the disease has been eradicated.
On Monday, February 26, Lacson signed EO 24-07, which outlines the guidelines for “the entry of all live pigs, boar semen, pork, pork products, and other pork-related food items from areas with reported ASF cases into the province.”
The EO prohibits the entry of hogs and pork products from Luzon, Mindanao, Eastern Visayas, Panay Island, Guimaras Island, Cebu Province (including Camotes and Bantayan Islands), Negros Oriental, Bacolod City, and countries affected by ASF, as identified by the Department of Agriculture.
The ban exempts fully-cooked processed pork products, such as ham, sausages, hotdogs, canned goods, pork chicharon, and pork-based seasonings, provided they are sourced from meat establishments certified compliant with the ASF Public-Private Audit.
The entry of hogs and pork by-products at ports, including in the cities of San Carlos, Escalante, and Cadiz, as well as the towns of E.B. Magalona and Pulupandan, will be strictly prohibited.
“All ports, under the province’s supervision, will rigorously enforce the no-entry zone for pork products from ASF-affected areas,” Lacson stated.
He further added that the provincial ASF task force, assigned to Bredco and Banago ports in Bacolod, would ensure that pork products delivered to Bacolod remain within the city.
Negros Occidental, home to a P6-billion swine industry, has recorded nearly 18,000 hog mortalities in around 20 local government units since April 2023, due to diseases such as ASF and hog cholera./PN
