AROUND 600 heads of pigs were slaughtered and buried in Davao de Oro due to the African Swine Fever (ASF), according to the Provincial Veterinary Office.
Provincial veterinarian Dr. Rolando Simene said on February 22, 2023 that the incident occurred last month in the municipality of Maragusan where they had to bury the pigs to stop the spread of the disease.
“(But) after that, wala na pud nibalik (It did not return). That was one barangay in Maragusan but so far as the situation is concerned, wala na pud siya nag spread (it did not spread),” Simene said during the Wednesday Media Forum.
As for the ASF status of the whole province, Simene said only one remaining municipality still has positive cases while the rest are ASF-free.
Currently, the province is still a red zone for ASF but the provincial government is working towards lowering it down to a pink zone.
“Ginahulat na lang namo ang (We are just waiting for a) report from the municipality to qualify them from the red zone to pink zone and eventually to green,” Simene said.
With this, Simene said they are initiating efforts in line with repopulating the swine industry, including assistance from the Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives For Recovery And Expansion (Inspire) program of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Simene said the Inspire program is ongoing and is worth around P7 million to cover the entire province of Davao de Oro.
“We still have some proposals and we are asking from the DA to have additional modules under the Inspire program,” he said. ICM