THE African Swine Fever (ASF) Task Force in Bacolod City is now monitoring the total swine population in the 61 villages including the commercial and backyards swine.
Lawyer Goldwyn Nifras, head of City Agriculture Office and vice chairperson of ASF Task Force, said Tuesday, September 24, that they are coordinating with the village officials to monitor the backyard hogs within their areas of jurisdiction.
Nifras along with the members of the ASF Task Force earlier held a meeting at the Bacolod Government Center and discussed the security measures to prevent the outbreak of ASF in the city.
“We agreed that all the barangay officials should report any uncharacteristic behavior of pigs, illnesses or swine deaths within their barangays so that it will be acted immediately,” Nifras said.
He said the hog raisers should not feed raw or undercooked pork products or food waste to pigs to avoid the spread of virus.
The ASF Task Force also encouraged the restaurants and hotels in Bacolod not to sell their food wastes and they should dispose it immediately.
“We are also closely coordinating with the swine raisers association in Bacolod City to discuss how to protect the swine industry here,” Nifras said.
He said all ports of entry in Bacolod City including Pulupandan and other ports in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental are being manned by the Philippine Coast Guard to inspect the proper authorization or licenses of importers of swine products or any processed foods.
“We also discussed that we may come up with some activity to show to our people that all our hog products in the city in the meantime are free from ASF and it’s safe for consumption,” he added.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia earlier issued Executive Order No. 27 creating the Task Force ASF to formulate the contingency plan for the ASF prevention and control measures in the city; to conduct massive information and awareness campaign to all stakeholders on ASF outbreak and the needed interventions to reduce its expected adverse impact in the city among others.
Leonardia said the ASF is a highly contagious hemorrhagic viral disease with very high mortality rates affecting hogs and swine but harmless to human health.
He said there’s a need to adopt measures in order to prevent great economic loss and protect the swine industry of the city.
“Strengthened monitoring and inspection is needed to prevent the outbreak of ASF in the city. In order to effectively address and devise measures to ensure the city against ASF, a need for the creation of a task force is imperative,” he added.
The Department of Agriculture has recently announced that the blood sample from incident reports of suspected swine disease from Rizal province sent for confirmatory Polymerase Chain Reaction test has positive for ASF. (MAP)
Bacolod intensifies ASF monitoring, prevention