ILOILO – The town of Tigbauan temporarily banned the entry of swine, locally made pork products and by-products from its neighbor town Oton,where the first case of African Swine Fever (ASF) in Western Visayas was logged.
Mayor Virgilion Teruel issued Executive Order (EO) No. 2022-039, dated Oct. 13, imposing the ban.
“Banning the entry of these products is not just ensuring the safety of meat consumers, but also the interest of the livestock industry, particularly the hog/swine farmers in the Municipality of Tigbauan,” Teruel’s EO read.
Relative to this, through EO No.2022-040 dated Oct. 14, the town mayor ordered quarantine checkpoints in all town’s entry points or borders such as in barangays Barroc, Linobayan, Buyu-an, Barosong, Lubog, Jamog, and Cordova Norte.
The following measures must be imposed:
* prohibit the transport and delivery of live animals, meat products and meat by-products unless accompanied by Veterinary Health Certificate (VHC) issued by a licensed veterinarian and shipping permit issued by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and its regional quarantine offices;
* report to the BAI any unusual number of swine deaths in Tigbauan;
* advise different backyard raisers not to feed kitchen food wastes to hogs;
* educate swine farmers to observe good animal husbandry practices (GAHP) and bio-security measures such as putting foot bath, regular disinfection of farms, vaccination, and deworming; and
* remind the public to avoid dumping of carcasses in waterways and to coordinate with the proper authority in the proper way of disposing dead animals and in cleaning and disinfecting the environs of infected pig.
Teruel also mandated the creation of a taskforce that will spearhead carrying out necessary measures to prevent, contain and eliminate the spread of ASF in the town.
The ASF taskforce will be composed of the municipal mayor, municipal vice mayor, Sangguniang Bayan committee on agriculture, Liga ng Mga Barangay president, municipal agriculturist, and the acting chief of police of Tigbauan police station.
The task force is tasked to:
* establish quarantine checkpoints in the boarders of Tigbauan, Oton, Leon, Guimbal, and Tubungan;
* monitor, inspect and report transportation of animals without required permits;
* require all meat vendors in the public and private wet markets to obtain and sell only meat with Meat Inspection Certificate (MIC);
* provide disinfectants and conduct bio-security measures like foot baths and checkpoints (where practicable), slaughterhouses and auction markets and areas that may be identified as quarantine zone, that is, an area set to control the disease within one-kilometer radius from the index case or barangay tested positive for disease; and
* establish a network for proper coordination with Iloilo province, other local government units (LGU), National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) and BAI.
The EO further provides that food safety measures must also be put in place.
It said that all animals brought to the slaughterhouse should be checked for fever and signs of diseased conditions. Animals with disease shall be condemned and properly disposed as per BAI procedures.
Also, all meat and meat by-products should be accompanied by NMIS or LGU MIC issued by meat inspectors assigned in the slaughterhouse while all meat vendors must display the MIC on their stall/stalls. The carcass/es shall be considered as hot meat and shall be confiscated, condemned and properly disposed as per BAI procedures.
All suspected animals will be subjected as “on hold” and must be reported immediately to BAI quarantine office and must coordinate with the NMIS enforcement teams to closely monitor all meat in markets./PN
