OUTBREAKS of the dreaded African swine fever (ASF) started on July 25, nearly a month before the government formally announced that a “mystery” disease is killing hogs, according to Manila’s notification to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
The “self-declaration” report of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) under the Department of Agriculture (DA) was submitted to the OIE on September 9. In the report, the BAI said it received the results of the confirmatory tests which confirmed that ASF killed hogs in seven areas on August 30.
Testing of pig blood samples done by the Animal Disease Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory in the Philippines on August 16 revealed that ASF was responsible for the deaths of the animals.
Manila then tapped The Pirbright Institute, an OIE reference laboratory, for confirmatory tests. The institute found that 14 out of the 20 blood samples were positive for ASF.
The Philippine government is currently awaiting the results of the virus isolation and virus sequencing tests to determine the strain of the ASF that struck hogs in Rizal.
In the report prepared by Agriculture Assistant Secretary Enrico Garzon, Manila said the outbreaks happed in backyard farms in the province of Rizal: in Cupang, Antipolo; and in San Jose, San Isidro, Macabud, Geronimo, San Rafael and Mascap in Rodriguez.
Garzon said in his report that 536 hogs died due to the ASF outbreaks. The government was forced to kill and dispose of 7,416 to control the spread of the highly contagious hog disease.
The government could not say the exact source of the outbreaks or the origin of infection. Manila said suspected swill feeding and the illegal movement of sick pigs that were being sold at a lower price may have been the culprits for the outbreaks.
Garzon said these were the measures applied by the government: movement control inside the country; surveillance outside containment and/or protection zone; surveillance within containment and/or protection zone; screening; quarantine; destruction of animal products; disposal of carcasses, by-products and waste; stamping out; zoning; disinfection; and ante and post-mortem inspections.
The Philippine government said in its notification that the event is “continuing” and committed to submit weekly follow-up reports to the OIE.