ASF in Davao

• DavOc town orders lockdown to prevent spread of disease

THE REGIONAL Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of the Davao Region has activated its Regional Animal Disease Task Force following the discovery of an Asian Swine Flu (ASF) case in Davao Occidental on Jan. 31.

In a Jan. 31 memorandum, Liza Maso, council chair and regional director of the Office of Civil Defense, ordered the activation of the task force, which is headed by the Depart

ment of Agriculture (DA), after a case of ASF was monitored in Don Marcelino, Davao Occidental.

“This is the first case of ASF in Mindanao,” said Maso, although the report did not contain the details about the case although the municipal government reported that about 1,000 pigs have died in eight barangays, four of them have been fully evaluated.

On Jan. 28, the DA regional office received a piece of information from the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian of Davao Occidental about the death of the animals, prompting the agency to send a team to the town to assess the situation.

On Jan. 30, samples from the area were submitted to the Regional Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory for testing, which resulted in the verification of the case.

The municipal government has also instituted a lockdown on the entry and exit of animals from the town to ensure that the problem is arrested.