CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office in Central Luzon spearheaded an inter-agency meeting that tackled current issues on rabies and the dreaded African swine fever.
The meeting was held alongside representative of government offices from the national, regional, provincial and municipal levels held on July 10 at the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Conference Room, City of San Fernando, Pampanga.
The discussions covered the national and regional report on the occurrence of rabies. Discussions revealed that effective information campaigns such as seminars, lectures, and distribution of brochures have been effective measures in educating the public against the effects of rabies to humans and animals. Also, the active vaccination and thorough collection of samples from the regional, provincial and different local government units led to a decrease of rabies cases on animals.
The inter-agency meeting also tackled a timely discussion on African swine fever. Different offices are taking action against the possible occurrence of ASF in the country.
Some actions taken were the increase of X-ray scanners, meat-sniffing dogs, simulation exercises, drafting of countermeasure plans, creation of local quick response teams and other mitigation measures.
Different offices of the government are being tapped and a series of coordination meetings are being set to secure the Philippines as an ASF-free country, in order to protect the Philippine hog industry and the country's food security.