BACOLOD City logged two positive cases of African swine fever (ASF) on Friday, May 26, 2023, after being free from the highly contagious hog 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.

“We will intensify testing,” he said.

On Friday afternoon, Regional Executive Director Jose Albert Barrogo, officer-in-charge of the Department of Agriculture (DA)-Western Visayas, also confirmed the ASF cases in this 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. The confirmation will still be on Monday,” he said.

Barrogo said he advised Benitez to activate the local task force and come up with a containment plan to prevent the spread of the disease as well as a recovery plan for the affected hog raisers.

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

Also on Friday afternoon, Benitez joined Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson for a joint animal biosecurity meeting of the province’s Incident Management Team (IMT) at the Command Center here.

On Monday night, 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 last week.

Meanwhile, Lacson said on Friday the province, which has a P6-billion swine industry, is facing a threat from hog cholera that has already caused the death of almost 6,000 pigs as of this week.

“I would say that hog cholera, it’s a threat. It’s really threatening right now. That’s why we have to be careful,” he told reporters.

Lacson cited data on Thursday showed that 5.5 percent of the hog population in Negros Occidental has been affected by swine diseases, mostly hog cholera.

The governor said that through the IMT, the provincial government monitors the animal mortality on a daily basis. (PNA)