May 29, 2023

 

Two ASF cases confirmed in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines

 

 

Bacolod City, the capital city of the Philippines' Negros Occidental, logged two positive cases of African swine fever (ASF) on May 26 after being free from the  disease more than three years since its outbreak was reported in the country.

 

Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez confirmed the development, following the release of results from the tested blood samples of hogs from a backyard piggery in Barangay Taculing.

 

Benitez said the hogs came from Bago City, just south of Bacolod.

 

Bago is part of the province's Fourth District, which has the most number of swine deaths mainly due to hog cholera in the past weeks. The mayor added that he ordered the culling of pigs within the 500-meter radius of the place where the pigs died.

 

The two pigs that tested positive for ASF died and were buried six-foot deep.

 

Regional executive director Jose Albert Barrogo, officer-in-charge of the Department of Agriculture-Western Visayas (DA-6), also confirmed the ASF cases in the city.

 

"What was announced by Mayor Albee was based on the laboratory test we conducted — the result was positive. But the result will still be confirmed by the Bureau of Animal Industry in Manila," he said.

 

Barrogo said he advised Benitez to activate a local task force and develop a containment plan to prevent the spread of ASF and a recovery plan for the affected hog raisers.

 

Bacolod recorded the first ASF cases in Negros Occidental, considered a dark green zone by the Department of Agriculture for being ASF-free.

 

On May 22, Negros Occidental banned the entry of all live pigs and pork products from neighboring Negros Oriental, which reported its first swine deaths due to ASF.

 

- PNA