BAGUIO CITY – The City Veterinary and Agriculture Office (CVAO) assured residents that there is a stable supply of pork in the city amidst the reported African Swine Fever (ASF) in some backyard and commercial piggery farms in three neighboring towns of Benguet over the past several weeks.
Assistant City Veterinarian Dr. Silardo B. Bested said that the delivery of some 300 to 350 hogs daily in the city already normalized after the Benguet provincial government decided to lift the temporary ban on the entry of live pigs in the province, including the city, recently, thus, retail prices of pork also stabilized.
He disclosed that when the Benguet provincial government imposed the temporary ban on the entry of live pigs in the province following the reported ASF cases in La Trinidad, Itogon and tuba, the supply of live pigs in the city drastically dropped to 100 to 150 wherein the supply came from local high raisers that triggered the sudden increase in the prices of pork from the previous P200 to P220 per kilo to as high as P250 per kilo.
However, the assistant city veterinarian claimed that the retail prices of pork is now back to P200 to P220 per kilo after the supply of hogs normalized.
According to him, local quarantine inspectors remain vigilant in monitoring the entry of live pigs in the city so that no ASF-infected pigs will be able to enter and affect other pigs in the city to ensure the stability of the supply of por considering the increasing demand for pork by both residents and tourists alike.
He stated that the documents of live pigs being transported to the city are being properly checked by the quarantine inspectors and veterinarians to make sure that the supply come from farms and areas that do not have ASF cases aside from the fact that before the pigs are butchered, the same are inspected and after which, the butchered pigs undergo the required postmortem examination before the meat is released for sale to the prospective retailers.
The city official explained that the pork coming from the city’s abattoir is guaranteed to be safe for human consumption as the same underwent the prescribed process of inspection and monitoring that is why the public is assured that what is being sold to them is not infected.
Bested called on the public not to be alarmed over the reported ASF cases in the nearby towns of Benguet because the situation in the said areas had been under control by the concerned authorities in cooperation with the local governments.
The ASF disease can only be transmitted by direct contact with an infected animal and that there is no animal to human transmission of the same. One of the stop gap measures to prevent the spread of the animal disease is the depopulation of the pigs within the 1-kilometer radius from the epicenter.
He revealed that the depopulation of the pigs within the 1-kilometer radius from the place where the AASF-infected animals had been discovered was already completed by the concerned authorities that is why the possibility of the animal disease spreading to other areas is already unlikely although it is still important for hog raisers to be vigilant on where the supply of pigs is coming from to prevent the repeat of the presence of ASF-infected animals in the said areas.
By Dexter A. See
Photo: ASF UPDATES – Regional, city and provincial veterinarians and agriculture officers provide the last updates on the reported African Swine Fever (ASF) cases in Benguet and Kalinga. Rosalia T. See
