TO help assuage the people’s fear for their health with regards to the safety of pork products they consume, a locally developed African Swine Fever or ASF Test Kit will be distributed in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region by Diamed Enterprise, following the signing of distribution agreement with its manufacturer GenAmplify Technologies Inc. (GTI), a subsidiary of Manila Healthtek (MTek).
“The GenAmplify ASF PCR Detection Kit delivers the same quality of performance as international brands. It is user-friendly, and is very convenient since it allows the use of different types of samples,” said Dr. Lorenzo Arellano, a veterinarian from Diamed.
Last year, the test kit was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and validated by the Veterinary Laboratory Division of the Bureau of the Animal Industry.
The test kit has been found it to be 100 percent sensitive, which means it can detect true positive as reflected on its sensitivity, and 100 percent specific or can also detect true negative, a matter that reflects on specificity.
Recently, the product also underwent field implementation in partnership with animal diseases diagnostic laboratories, including the facility of Diamed in Los Baños, to validate its performance and understand the gaps before its actual roll-out in the market.
Diet pandemic
SINCE ASF was first detected in 2019, it has affected the Philippine hog raising industry, valued at about P260 billion, according to a report from Phys Org in 2021.
Since many of the affected hogs were culled to mitigate the rapid spread of the virus, the Filipino diet has been affected by the short supply of pigs which are among the main sources of protein and widely-consumed livestock products of the domestic market at 15.2 kilograms per capita.
Next to rice, pork is the top 2 source of food energy for Filipino working adults, according to a study published in Nutrients in April 2020.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia Senior Vice President Jason Baker previously said that “deadly disease outbreaks will continue as long as animals are packed into filthy pens and feedlots [confined feeding quarters to speed up weight gain].”
“Unless people stop eating meat, we might see ourselves with another pandemic on our hands very soon,” he added.
Aggressive push
PER the Department of Agriculture, ASF nationwide has substantially waned after the outbreak three years ago.
Its data showed that active cases were reported in only two regions, four provinces, seven municipalities and 20 barangays as of March 31.
This was a significant reduction from a high of 3,657 barangays in 678 cities and municipalities, in 51 provinces, recorded since 2019.
Despite the improved situation, the province of Camiguin declared an ASF outbreak on July 4.
This happened at the time when GTI is aggressively rolling out the test kits nationwide to help detect the spread of the animal disease in other parts of the country.
“We are open also for other distributors to cover other areas, most especially those areas with reported outbreaks,” said Maricar Ocampo, Vice President for Sales and Marketing of GTI.
“A wider distribution network will eventually help us further lower the cost of testing to make it more accessible for hog farmers,” she noted.
Aside from lower cost and accessibility, Dr. Ernesto Balolong Jr., Director of Research and Development, Animal Health Division of MTek, added another important product feature.
“Since the product is locally-developed, the manufacturers can readily provide technical assistance to laboratories should there be problems, versus imported test kits,” he said.
Diamed Enterprise is a provider of Life Science and Diagnostics products in the country. Aside from marketing the GenAmplify ASF PCR Detection Kit, GTI also manufactures and distributes high-quality, accurate kits and devices used for diagnostic testing for communicable and non-communicable diseases, including the Philippine-developed GenAmplify Coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) RT-PCR test kit and MTek’s Biotek-M Dengue Aqua Kit.