Pangasinan isolates village infested by swine fever

File photo

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The Pangasinan government has cordoned off a village in Bayambang town after African swine fever was detected in 30 random blood samples taken from a backyard piggery there.

Governor Amado Espino III in a statement said the infected hogs were traced to the Barangay Apalen piggery of Doctorio Asuncion Caneso, who asserted that his pigs were homegrown.

Espino said he was informed on Thursday afternoon about the test results by Lucrecio Alviar, Ilocos Region director of the Department of Agriculture.

The tests were undertaken after laboratory findings confirmed that swine fever was not present at hog farms operating seven-kilometers from ASF-affected Baloling village at Mapandan town.

Baloling was quarantined after a local trader imported infected hogs from another province in September. All of the pigs in the barangay were culled and buried, while areas within a 10-kilometer radius from the infestation site were placed under strict surveillance.

Apalen is outside the quarantine radius. The blood samples that tested positive for the disease were from 30 pigs that died.

“I reiterate my call to all concerned municipal and barangay officials to be more vigilant in guarding all possible entry points to Pangasinan and in closely monitoring swine industries within their respective jurisdictions,” Espino said.