DA RULES OUT ASF IN HOGS
Let us not make things worse. Allow us to do our jobs
Agriculture officials on Monday acknowledged reports of “unusual hog mortality” in an undisclosed area of the country but ruled out an outbreak of the dreaded African swine fever (ASF) just yet.
This development was first reported on Friday by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) whose top officials said local supply of pork has not been affected.
At a news briefing on Monday, Agriculture Secretary William Dar vowed to remain vigilant and secure the local swine industry against the dreaded ASF virus.
Dar said the Department of Agriculture (DA) has reinforced already rigorous import policies, early detection and strict biosecurity measures heightening ASF awareness at the national level.
Without disclosing the location of the backyard farms and the value of affected hogs, Dar said the suspected hog disease should not hamper the production and distribution of pork in the local markets.
Dar stressed the DA has yet to identify the cause of the mortality event.
“We are (currently) conducting further confirmatory laboratory tests, including sending blood samples to foreign laboratories to ascertain the cause of the animals’ death,” said Dar.
He would neither deny nor confirm the suspected ASF case in the country, saying they have to wait for the confirmatory results that would take two weeks at the earliest and up to three months at the latest.
“Let us not make things worse. Allow us to do our jobs,” Dar said.
The World Health Organization said the ASF is a highly-contagious hemorrhagic hog disease caused by the DNA virus of the Asfarviridae family.
The virus causes loss of appetite, high fever, hemorrhages and death in two to ten days.
Over the weekend, Taiwan News reported that the East Asian nation will start checking carry-on bags from the Philippines effective midnight of Monday as precautionary measure against ASF.
The order came after the Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) reported that “ASF cases have been detected in Bulacan and Rizal Provinces of the Philippines, even though the authorities have not reported the cases to the World Health Organization for Animal Health.”