BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera Office of the Department of Agriculture (DA-CAR) disclosed that a total of six hundred forty pigs from five areas in the region were reportedly culled out after cases of the African Swine Fever (ASF) were detected in both backyard and commercial piggery farms in the said places.
DA-CAR regional director Dr. Cameron Odsey said that some 340 pigs were depopulated in the commercial and backyard piggery farms where ASF cases were reported in La Trinidad, Tuba and Itogon, Benguet, while some 300 pigs were culled out from the 1-kilometer radius from the epicenter of the recorded ASF cases, specially in barangay San Julian, Tabuk City, Kalinga and that no pigs were depopulated in the area of Tanudan town because the area where the ASF cases were discovered was too far from the nearby piggery farms.
He claimed that among the reasons that have been uncovered on the presence of ASF cases in Benguet and Kalinga were the use of left over food to feed the pigs and the delivery of infected animals from places that have reported ASF cases in the past.
The DA-CAR official revealed that there are some 37 piggery farm owners in Benguet and 4 piggery farm owners in Kalinga who were affected by the massive depopulation of the pigs that were found within the 1-kilometer radius from the epicenter of the reported ASF cases.
According to him, the affected piggery farm owners will be compensated through the agency’s indemnification fund with the amount of P5,000 per pig with a maximum of 20 pigs per owner but the same has yet to be processed in the central office.
Benguet Provincial Veterinarian Miriam Tiongan revealed the provincial government already extended livelihood assistance to the affected piggery owners in the 3 municipalities wherein they were given at least 200 chicks each for them to raise while awaiting the release of the indemnification fund from the DA central office.
She added the spread of the ASF in the province has been under control because of the enhanced quarantine checkpoints that were established in the different entry points of the province to prevent the further entry of ASF-infected pigs that might worsen the situation and will result in the depletion of the supply of hogs.
The provincial veterinarian claimed the ASF-infected pigs were sneaked into the province through the use of closed vans that prevented the quarantine inspectors to see the real contents of the closed private vehicle, thus, she advised piggery farm owners in the province not to order their piglets online and in the areas that have already reported ASF cases.
While the disease can only be transmitted from an infected animal to another animal through direct contact, veterinarians and agriculture officers advised the public not to eat pork that came from ASF-infected pigs because people do not know about its effects to humans in the future even if health authorities have ruled out that eating pork from ASF-infected animals do not have an effect to the health of the people.
With the intensified quarantine checkpoints regionwide, they expressed confidence that there will be no ASF-infected animals that will enter any part of the situation that might complicate the situation.
By Hent
