Vigilance urged to protect Visayas against ASF
The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Central Visayas advised pork product stakeholders to protect the region from the possible entry of the African swine fever (ASF) even as stricter measures were being implemented.
Public vigilance is crucial following the official declaration of infestation in Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), the first case of ASF in the Visayas, DA-7 director Salvador Diputado said after conducting an emergency meeting with the Animal Disease Surveillance Advisory Committee.
Workers from local government units and the Regional Veterinary Quarantine Services in Central Visayas will augment monitoring at ports.
“They are directed to strictly check all documents accompanying transported swine, including pork, and ensure that all livestock transport services are properly disinfected. Disinfection certificates must be present in all ports,” he reiterated.
DA-7 will also conduct random blood sample collections in slaughterhouses as it encouraged hog farmers to report unexplained deaths among pigs.
Diputado reminded the public to avoid feeding pigs with swill (food scraps and other waste material), stop purchasing processed pork products from ASF-hit areas, impose biosecurity measures in swine farms and regularly disinfect transport vehicles.
Central Visayas, particularly Cebu, is one of the top producers of pork products and by-products in the country. Cebu is particularly famous for its lechon (roast pig) products.
DA recently confirmed that ASF cases were confirmed in Abuyog, Leyte. Regional director Angel Enriquez said the affected villages of Canaporong and Bunga had unusual swine mortalities involving backyard farms since December 2020.
African swine fever is a contagious, viral disease that affects domestic pigs and wild boar, causing deaths. It does not affect humans.
Experts said transmission can occur through nose to nose contact and through contamination of fields, pastures, feed and feed ingredients and water sources from the urine, feces and saliva of wild pigs.
Also posing risks are clothing, footwear and equipment used by people who were in contact with infected wild swine.
Infected pigs experience and manifest high fever, weakness and difficulty standing, vomiting, diarrhea, red or blue blotches on the skin particularly around ears and snout and coughing or labored breathing. Some have miscarriage, abortions, stillbirths and weak litters.
The head of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) warned that all countries, no matter their geographical location, are at risk of having ASF enter their borders.
“The risk exists for all countries, whether they are geographically close or geographically distant because there is a multitude of potential sources of contamination,” OIE director general Monique Eloit said. “ASF can be transmitted by simply discarding a product that has used meat from a contaminated country and then that waste being reused by farmers to feed their pigs.”
They are directed to strictly check all documents accompanying transported swine, including pork, and ensure that all livestock transport services are properly disinfected.