MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government decided to lift the implementation of the total ban on the entry of live pigs coming from the different parts of the Ilocos and Cordillera regions to prevent the artificial shortage of pork for the consumption of the residents.
Mayor Frenzel Ayong said that the local government opted to lift the total lockdown in response to the agreement reached by the veterinarians and agriculture officers from Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, Buguias, Benguet and Bauko, Tadian, Sabangan, Besao, Sagada and Bontoc, Mountain Province for the implementation of stringent quarantine measures to prevent the entry of African Swine Fever-infected hogs in the municipality which will have a serious negative effect to the local hog industry in the future.
Mankayan hosted the recent meeting of the veterinarians and agriculture officers to ensure the proper coordination among them that will guarantee that live pigs being shipped to the municipality are not infected with the ASF virus.
The local chief executive disclosed that the veterinarians and agriculture officers agreed that for every shipment of live pigs from the aforesaid areas, transporters must present to the quarantine inspectors assigned in the different entry points of the municipality a certification from the place of origin that the transported live pigs re not infected with ASF.
“We want to make sure that the supply of live pigs coming from the different municipalities of Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province will be free from the virus to protect the town’s hog industry considering that a number of backyard hog raisers rely on such activity s their source of livelihood for their families,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
Earlier, Gov. Melchor D. Diclas lifted a previous order imposing a total ban on the entry of live pigs from the lowlands passing through the different entry points of the province following the discovery of ASF cases in several commercial and backyard piggery farms in Tuba, La Trinidad and Itogon towns.
Ayong called on hog dealers transporting live pigs from the different towns of Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province to comply with the agreed condition to prevent the ASF virus from entering the municipality because the local government will have no recourse but to bring back the total lockdown in the entry of live pigs in the municipality.
According to him, local officials understand that pork is one of the type of meat that is in demand for residents in their celebrations that is why the local government went out of its way to find ways and means to help local hog raisers in providing the adequate supply of pork for the people while preventing the entry of the dreaded ASF virus in the municipality.
He added that the different municipal agriculture officers who earlier met and formulated the prescribed condition to allow the continuous entry of live pigs in the municipality will again meet after one month to assess the situation until such time that the spread of the virus will be under control so as not to contaminate live pigs that are being raised by hog raisers from the different barangays for them to be able to sustain their source of livelihood for the upliftment of the living condition of their families.
By Hent
