El Niño damage to Negros Occidental's livestock, poultry P3M

THE Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) of Negros Occidental reported that the damage brought by the prevailing El Niño phenomenon to the province's livestock and poultry industry increased to about P3 million.

Dr. Ryan Janoya, head of Animal Health and Meat Inspection Services Division of PVO, said they noted a huge amount of production losses in Fourth and Fifth Districts, almost P1.8 million.

Janoya said these districts host large portion of the province's livestock and poultry production areas.

"The remaining amount of damage comprises those for other localities in the province," he said, adding the monitoring, assessment and validation of PVO are ongoing thus, the damage may still increase.

In terms of animals, PVO noted huge losses among swine and chicken particularly broilers and layers.

Janoya said swine for livestock and broiler for poultry are most vulnerable to extreme heat.

Since swine has no sweat glands, the animal has difficulty on regulating its body temperature so they need to be bathed frequently.

Broiler and layers, meanwhile, is fast-growing, thus their metabolism is also fast. But, they have weak coping mechanism when it comes to heat regulation.

Aside from swine and chicken, some ruminants are also affected by the dry spell associated to El Niño.

Janoya said animals like goat and cow were affected due to lack of pasture area. In fact, some even dried up.

PVO has been advising raisers to avoid putting their animals in areas with high temperature like those exposed to sunlight.

It's better to place animals in shaded areas like under the trees, and provide them sufficient amount of water.

"Affected raisers were given technical assistance," he said, reiterating that they are also advised to provide additional supplements to animals like multivitamins and electrolytes to be resistant against diseases.

In terms of damage to crops, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) earlier reported that dry spell damage to sugarcane sector of Negros Occidental is already pegged at about P366 million.

The figure covers affected area of 42,424.86 hectares.

The estimated yield loss is 114,773 tons, equivalent to 223,807.91 50-kilogram bags of sugar and 3,787.51 metric tons of molasses.

In terms of value, the SRA reported a damage worth P324.5 million in sugar and almost P41.7 million in molasses.

This is on top of P76.6 million worth of production losses in the province's rice, corn, high value commercial crops and fishery sectors as reported by the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist.

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