Davao City—African swine fever (ASF) is rearing its ugly head anew in Mindanao following the easing of lockdown restrictions, which allowed traders to transport food products, including pork, to other parts of the region.
In Davao del Norte province, authorities locked down Barangay Cagangohan in Panabo City over the weekend after the City Veterinarian’s Office confirmed that ASF struck 12 pigs of backyard raisers in Purok Mabolo.
This is the latest incident of ASF infection in the region since it first appeared in backyard farms in the town of Don Marcelino in Davao Occidental last January. Officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) could still not say how the disease found its way into Mindanao.
Before the incident, ASF has been confined to the provinces of Rizal, Pampanga and Bulacan.
City officials of Panabo said they put up road restrictions from the coastal Cagangohan barangay to the neighboring barangays of JP Laurel, Gredu, New Pandan and San Pedro.
Davao del Norte Governor Edwin Jubahib said stricter quarantine protocols against ASF are necessary to prevent the spread of the killer hog disease to other parts of the province.
“We now blocked the entry and exit of live pig and pork products to and from Cagangohan to stop the spread of the disease,” he said.
Panabo City had to cull 222 pigs from 59 backyard raisers in the affected barangay last week.
The DA and the city and provincial governments raised the indemnification to P2,000 per suckling and P8,000 per pig.
Jubahib also assured that native chicken, which will be raised by affected households until the ASF threat is eliminated, will be delivered next week.
Regional Agriculture Director Ricardo Oñate said pig raisers may avail of a zero-interest loan of up to P30,000 from the DA’s Agricultural Credit Policy Council. The loan is payable in three years.
Panabo City has repeatedly advised meat dealers and meat sellers in the city market to ensure their products came only from areas that are ASF-free.
In Davao City, the City Veterinarian’s Office called on all lechon house owners and meat sellers to get their pigs or meat supply from legitimate pig growers and ASF-free areas in the city.
The warning was issued after the ASF team in the Sirawan checkpoint 22 kilometers southwest of downtown intercepted eight heads of undocumented pig carcasses on July 9. The team said the products were smuggled into Davao City from Padada, Davao del Sur, as it did not have a permit.
City Veterinarian Dr. Cerelyn Pinili said that the products weighed 35 to 40 kilograms each and were covered with coconut husk and charcoal inside a vehicle owned by a lechon house businessman who later admitted to the violation.
“Fortunately, our people at the checkpoint are vigilant, that’s why they caught them,” she said.
Pinili added that it was a violation of the Meat Inspection Code of the Philippines or Republic Act 10536, and Executive Order 39, Series of 2019, of Davao City temporarily banning all live pigs, pork and pork-related products and by-products from ASF-affected areas to enter the city.
Pinili said her office will take legal action against the violator and warned all lechon house owners, and meat businesses to take the measures against ASF seriously.
Two city barangays, Dominga and Lamanan in Calinan district, were also contaminated by the ASF a week after the Don Marcelino infection. Later, the town of Sulop, Davao del Sur, also reported infection.
The regional DA said on June 11 that villages in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, were affected by ASF. Last week, DA-12 also confirmed ASF cases in three barangays in Magpet, North Cotabato.
Image credits: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg