BARANGAY Vista Alegre Captain Jose Maria Leandro Norberto De Leon urged all the backyard hog raisers in Bacolod City to properly dispose of their dead pigs.
On Wednesday, May 31, a dead pig was found floating in a river in Barangay Vista Alegre while another dead pig was found dumped in a drainage.
“We should be responsible on how to dispose of the dead animals because we now have the African swine fever (ASF) cases in some barangays. We don’t know where it came from,” De Leon said.
He said they already informed the City Veterinary Office (CVO) to address this problem.
“We should follow the protocol on how to properly dispose of the dead pigs suspected of having been infected with the ASF virus,” he added.
De Leon noted that the local government unit should help the backyard hog raisers to overcome this challenge.
“It’s their livelihood so we need to educate them to prevent the spread of the ASF virus,” De Leon said.
He said that most of the backyard hog raises failed to implement biosecurity measures, so they might be contaminated with the virus.
He added in Barangay Vista Alegre alone, they have a total of 135 backyard hog raisers.
As of Friday, De Leon said the barangay has no record of dead pigs from the backyard hog raisers.
Moreover, Acting Mayor El Cid Familiaran said they already received the result from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) in Manila and it was confirmed that two pigs from Barangay Taculing and the two pigs in Barangay Tangub have tested positive for ASF virus.
“ We have now four positive ASF cases and we also culled the pigs suspected of having been infected with the ASF virus in Barangay Tangub,” he said.
City Legal Officer Romeo Carlos Ting Jr., also a member of the ASF task force, earlier said that they decided for the culling of the 23 pigs in Barangay Tangub to prevent the spread of the ASF virus.
He said Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez already mentioned the distribution of financial assistance to the affected backyard hog raisers.
He added that they will wait for the final decision of the mayor to determine the amount to be given to the affected hog raisers.