MANILA has strengthened its border security to prevent the entry of the fatal African Swine Fever (ASF) disease, which is wreaking havoc on China’s hog industry and could spread to Asian countries any time.
The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) issued a technical advisory outlining the measures being conducted by the Department of Agriculture (DA) in relation to the current ASF outbreak in South Africa, Europe, Russia and now in China.
“Historically, the country is free from African Swine Fever,” the BAI, an attached agency of DA, said.
“Thus, incursion of the disease in the Philippines will result in great economic loss due to direct and indirect damages to the industry,” it added.
The country ranks eighth in the world in terms of pork volume production and number of breeding sows, according to BAI.
Twin ban orders
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol on Friday signed two memorandum orders (MO), which seek to control the entry and movement of pig products in the country, as these food items are carriers of ASF.
MO 22 ordered the ban on the use of catering food waste/leftovers from international and domestic airports and seaports as swine swill feed throughout the country.
“The risk of introduction of potentially infectious disease pathogens, such as African Swine Fever and foot-and-mouth diseaase through catering food waste/leftovers collected from international and domestic airports and seaports that are used for swill feeding poses a grave threat to the local swine industry,” Piñol said in MO 22, a copy of which was given to reporters over the weekend.
“Animal disease pathogens are quite resistant to high and low temperatures in meat-based food preparations, thus, swill feeding is considered to be one important route of disease introduction in the country,” Piñol added.
Under MO 22, Piñol also directed the veterinary quarantine officers assigned across veterinary quarantine stations to “oversee and monitor” that domestic and international airports and seaports “follow proper disinfection and disposal of catering food waste and leftovers including catering garbage.”
On the other hand, MO 23 imposed a temporary blanket ban on the importation of domestic and wild pigs, and their products, including pork meat and semen from Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and China.
Furthermore, under MO 23, Piñol imme-diately suspended the processing and evaluation of the application and issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances to pork products coming from the six banned countries.
The government’s veterinary quarantine officers and inspectors will also confiscate and stop all shipments of pork products coming from the six countries at all major ports.
The government will also confiscate “all meat and meat products brought in by arriving passengers,” from the six banned countries, according to MO 23.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the ASF is not transmissible to humans, but would result in 100-percent fatality in swine population.
‘Could spread to rest of Asia anytime’
However, the FAO warned that the ASF, which has spread in at least four cities in China, could spread to Asian countries anytime.
“The rapid onset of African Swine Fever in China, and its detection in areas more than 1,000 kilometers apart within the country, could mean the deadly pig virus may spread to other Asian countries anytime,” the United Nations’s FAO said in a news release on August 28.
Based on the series of reports submitted by Beijing to the World Organisation for Animal Health, about 38,235 hogs across five areas have been susceptible to ASF as of August 31.
Of the total population, about 37,650 hogs have been culled by the Chinese government to contain the virus. China reported its fifth ASF outbreak on August 31 with 459 hogs affected by the disease.
‘Highly contagious’
BAI said the ASF is a “highly contagious hemorrhagic” disease of domestic and wild pigs of all ages.
“The disease is characterized by high fever, loss of appetite, hemorrhages in the skin and internal organs, and death, which follows between 2to10 days on the average,” it said. “Mortality can be as high as 100 percent,” it added.
However, even if ASF is not considered as a zoonotic disease, the BAI said it encourages swine raisers “to strengthen and strictly implement farm biosecurity measures.”
“The public is enjoined to support the government’s efforts by reporting to veterinary authorities any unusual pig mortalities, pork-smuggling activities or meat items hand-carried by travelers coming from affected countries,” the BAI added.
Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines Inc. President Edwin G. Chen said the government must intensify its efforts in monitoring and hindering the entry of smuggled pork products in the country.
“We need to be vigilant against smuggling due to recent outbreaks of ASF in China,” Chen told the BusinessMirror via SMS.
“Even processed pork products had virus found on them,” Chen added.
Simeon S. Amurao Jr. of the BAI told the BusinessMirror that the government will impose an immediate temporary blanket importation ban on trade partners that would have an ASF outbreak.
However, Amurao cautioned that the imposition of temporary importation bans on pig products could cause global pork prices to shoot up.
“We are closely monitoring the spread of the ASF in China, as well as in Europe,” Amurao said in an interview.
“In fact, we are paying close attention to Germany because its neighboring countries have already reported an ASF outbreak. If Germany gets hit by ASF then we have to ban them even if it is one of our biggest sources of pork imports,” Amurao added.
If Germany gets banned, according to Amurao, prices of pork exports of the United States and Canada, which are top pork-exporting countries, could increase.
Pig products
The FAO urged countries to be more vigilant with the movement of pig products within their territories, as these could serve as carriers of the ASF virus.
“The movement of pig products can spread diseases quickly and, as in this case of African Swine Fever, it’s likely that the movement of such products, rather than live pigs, has caused the spread of the virus to other parts of China,” FAO Chief Veterinarian Juan Lubroth was quoted as saying in a press release.
The FAO explained that the ASF virus is “very hardy,” as it could survive for “long periods in very cold and very hot weather,” and can even survive in dried or cured pork products.
In fact, South Korea confirmed last week that some pork products brought in by returning travelers from China tested positive for ASF.
A report by The Korea Times said the “a virus gene of the disease was found in two processed pork products that were brought in and voluntarily reported by two travelers who visited Shenyang, China.”
There is no effective vaccine yet to protect swine from the disease, according to the FAO.