BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Hog cholera and other swine diseases decimated the hog population in San Enrique, Negros Occidental, leaving the municipality with only six alive.
Consumers are buying pork someplace else, according to Mayor Jilson Tubillara yesterday morning.
The local government, however, has yet to declare a state of calamity.
San Enrique can only declare a state of calamity if 15 percent of the town’s livelihood is affected, said Tubillara.
The municipality’s people have other sources of livelihood, particularly fishing.
Tubillara also said they have an existing insurance coverage for hog raisers, however it only covers African Swine Fever (ASF), not hog cholera.
The mayor also voiced suspicion with what could be causing hog mortalities in the town, pointing out that several raisers claimed their pigs were vaccinated against hog cholera.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said yesterday several blood samples tested at the Provincial Veterinary Laboratory in Bacolod City’s Panaad Park tested positive for ASF.
Diaz did not divulge the origin of the samples pending confirmatory test results from the Bureau of Animal Industry in Metro Manila.
The provincial government’s veterinary laboratory can only be used for surveillance purposes.
Present protocols will be enforced such as locking down farms which have positive hog cholera or suspected ASF cases, as well as placing them under monitoring, said Diaz.
In the meantime, the provincial administrator revealed that among the projects that could help affected hog raisers is introducing alternative livelihood such as breeding of free-range chicken.
The provincial government has allocated more than P10 million for hog raisers through the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development./PN