LIVESTOCK CHECKPOINT The Bureau of Animal Industry has put up checkpoints across the country to inspect swine shipments.
—RICHARD A. REYES
The country’s swine industry continues to suffer from African swine fever (ASF), with the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) tally showing that the animal disease has spread to 11 regions, 22 provinces and 64 municipalities, as of Aug. 8.
Since the first ASF outbreak in 2019, the viral disease has affected 74 out of 82 provinces nationwide, but the Department of Agriculture (DA) said it is “not that alarming” since vaccines are “on the way.”
According to the DA, 10,000 vaccines against the ASF arrived on Friday and the vaccination could begin by Tuesday.
The agency has also put up livestock checkpoints across Luzon to prevent further spread of the disease and protect the livestock and poultry industry.
READ: 7 towns in Quezon log ASF cases
On Friday, the BAI said it intercepted two more trucks containing hogs in Quezon City. It said one truck carried 87 hogs while the other had 14 hogs and the drivers of these trucks presented fake documents when apprehended by BAI personnel and police officers.
Pigs from the first truck tested positive for ASF while pigs from the other truck showed clinical signs of viral disease. The hogs were condemned and buried, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Constante Palabrica said.
Hog raisers’ indemnity
Likewise, the DA promulgated Administrative Order No. 10 increasing the indemnity paid to affected hog raisers, hoping to address delayed payments and clamor for higher compensation.
“[The] delay in detection, case confirmation or stamping-out actions can lead to failure of the whole eradication program,” the order dated Aug. 15 read.
No cash aid will be given to culled suckling piglets or pigs from birth until separated (weaned) from their sow.
For a weanling or young pig separated from the sow about 30-90 days old that weigh not more than 25 kilograms (kg), the compensation is set at P4,000 each.
The DA will also pay P8,000 for every condemned grower (any pig between weaning and sale or transfer to the breeding herd, sold for slaughter or killed for rations weighing 25 to 75 kg) or finisher (those with more than 70 kg live weight) pig.