July 13, 2023

 

Capital of Antique, Philippines, to keep watch for ASF infections in villages

 

 

With 17 of the 28 villages in San Jose de Buenavista, the capital of Antique, the Philippines, confirming hog mortalities due to African swine fever (ASF), the local government unit there will focus on monitoring the animal disease.

 

Municipal Agriculture Officer (MAO) Rene Barte said in an interview that he will recommend to Mayor Elmer Untaran the lifting of the border control starting July 17, 2023, and their personnel to assist in the implementation of the biosecurity in farms.

 

The municipality, as of July 10, has recorded 240 hog mortalities.

 

"MAO would rather focus now on monitoring the ASF cases in the barangays than implementing the border control," Barte said. He added that farmers are instructed to immediately bury dead hogs in their farms to prevent the spread of ASF.

 

"Migratory birds or even flies could also become carriers once they could get in contact with the ASF-infected hogs even if these are already dead," he said.

 

Farmers with apparently healthy live weight are advised to install screens at their pig pens so that migratory birds or flies carrying the ASF virus could not infect them.      

 

Meanwhile, the municipality of Hamtic has already recorded 3,924 hog mortalities from 31 barangays as of July 9.

 

Hamtic MAO Isidro Ramos said in a separate interview that affected farmers have received emergency cash assistance totaling ₱18 million (US$330 million). "The hog raisers are really grateful for the assistance given them considering that they could not yet repopulate their farms until perhaps next year," Ramos said.

 

In another development, Senate Committee on Agriculture chairperson Senator Cynthia Villar said that the Department of Agriculture will soon be establishing border facilities in the Philippines to ensure that farm animals are not carriers of any disease.

 

"The border facilities will be established in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao," she said in an interview.

 

According to Villar, border facilities to be set up in the three major islands will serve as laboratories to check on transported animals so they cannot infect other animals with diseases like ASF.

 

- PNA