CEBU Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has cast doubt on the African swine fever (ASF) findings in Carcar City after discovering that the “positive” samples were taken from the slaughterhouse.
Garcia said Monday that this was not the protocol that should have been followed.
She said testing had also been inadequate.
On Monday, March 13, 2023, Garcia suspended the culling of pigs in Barangay Guadalupe, Carcar City that have been suspected of having ASF, on the same day that an agriculture official said ASF had not been detected in other local government units (LGUs) in Cebu island nearly two weeks after ASF was found in blood samples of pigs slaughtered in Carcar City last March 1.
“You have a hog that manifests symptoms like fever or vomiting or loss of appetite and then eventually starts to weaken and perhaps dies. That is when you suspect the possibility of ASF. And where you should have taken not just the blood samples but sampling from the spleen. That’s all available information, but this is not information that was given to us from DA (Department of Agriculture),” Garcia said.
She pointed out that there is the ASF and there is the common swine flu, or swine cholera, both of which display almost similar symptoms and are highly contagious.
She said the difference is that ASF, more often than not, causes 100 percent mortality, while swine cholera is treatable and the pig may not succumb to it.
The governor said she began to suspect that it may be swine cholera because she hasn’t seen deaths in large numbers, which would most likely happen if it was ASF.
Garcia said a pig with ASF will die within five to seven days, which is the incubation period.
“To test for ASF requires not just an RT-PCR test, but another test called Elisa. It’s a serological test, further to be confirmed by an alternative serological test as well. That is not being done. We are merely relying on the PCR test result the same way we relied on the RT-PCR test results for Covid where, by the Department of Health (DOH) figures alone, 94.5 percent are asymptomatic or mild,” she said.
She said that in the case of Covid-19 (coronavirus disease), it was the RT-PCR machine that determined whether a person had the disease or not even if that person did not display any symptoms, which resulted in panic.
The governor said it was then she realized that it made good business, and when money is involved policies get “skewed.”
Garcia said the DA should look into the common swine fever and segregate the ASF virus from the cholera virus.
Test adequately
She reiterated that when testing for ASF, blood and spleen samples must be taken.
She said that in the case of Carcar City, only blood samples were taken and these were only subjected to one test instead of three to determine ASF.
She also said there were no attempts to trace where the tested meat came from. Nor was there an attempt to conduct confirmatory tests.
Garcia said samples should not have been taken from the slaughterhouse.
“The DOH has already issued an advisory that even if this pork is ASF-infected it is not harmful to humans... That’s the wrong logic. What we are trying to avoid here is not harm to the humans but harm to the pigs, harm to the hog industry... They should have been tested right there in the farm or in the backyard where there are symptoms of ASF or cholera because these are just about the same symptoms,” she said.
Stop the cull
The governor also criticized the culling policy, which initially covered pigs found within a kilometer radius, but now covers pigs found within a 500-meter radius, regardless of whether they are healthy or not.
She said she stopped the culling in Barangay Guadalupe, Carcar City and instead prohibited the exit of the pigs.
Last Friday, Carcar City Mayor Patrick Barcenas had said at least 300 pigs from three barangays had been culled. But Garcia said Monday that only 141 of them had actually been put to death because they stopped killing the other pigs to first assess the situation.
Own policies
Garcia said Cebu Province will come up with its own policies to address the ASF situation as it did during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Garcia said the Province’s policies will be well studied and take into consideration the actual situation on the ground.
“We cannot go back to the times that we had entire lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic when we were all paralyzed by fear. And yet thereafter when I studied the data, the data did not match the fear,” she said.
She said the Provincial Government is exploring all avenues “that should have already been explored” and integrated into the national policy to control ASF.
“But apparently, none of this, it’s just all about killing pigs and paying them,” she said.
Earlier on Monday, the governor met with mayors of the nine towns and city currently being monitored for the presence of ASF at the Provincial Capitol.
She told them to implement a “calculated approach” to combat ASF, adding that indiscriminate culling will only harm the livelihood of local hog growers and lechon vendors.
At the meeting were Mayor Mario Patricio Barcenas of Carcar City, where ASF was discovered last March 1; Mayor Lionel Bacaltos of Sibonga; Mayor Allan Sesaldo of Argao; Mayor Pablo John IV of Barili; Mayor Efren Guntrano Gica of Dumanjug; Mayor Valdemar Chiong of the City of Naga; Mayor Mytha Ann Canoy of San Fernando; Mayor Gilberto Magallon of Alegria; and Mayor Aljew Fernando Frasco of Liloan.
Garcia, during her press conference, said she told the nine mayors to submit an inventory of all backyard hog raisers in the barangays and to have the pigs monitored.
She also told them to start disinfecting the pig pens.
She said farmers must immediately report pigs that start displaying symptoms to authorities, as well as pigs that die so samples can be taken and tested for swine cholera.
She said the Province will purchase vaccines for swine cholera and vaccinate all backyard pigs.
Meanwhile, Garcia said the Province will compensate farmers whose pigs were culled in Carcar City and pay them P5,000 per pig.
She said the current national policy is to pay P15,000 per pig.
“I’m seeing the same path as what we saw with the Covid-19 reactions and the subsequent policies that were issued that defied logic and did not consider the situation on the ground,” the governor said.
No other Cebu LGU
On Monday, Dr. Daniel Ventura, ASF coordinator of the Department of Agriculture in Central Visayas (DA 7), told SunStar Cebu that ASF had not yet been detected in other LGUs in Cebu Island.
Ventura said the agency, in coordination with the Cebu Provincial Veterinary Office, City Government of Carcar, and other stakeholders, was continuously monitoring and observing the spread of the disease in the province.
Ventura said the DA 7 has collected samples from Carcar City’s neighboring LGUs, especially those included in the pink (buffer) and yellow (surveillance) zones.
These blood samples are sent to laboratories for testing and analysis.
Ventura said tracing the source of the virus has also been done. (with ANV, EHP)