MANILA, Philippines — A total of 497 villages have been affected by the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus but its spread in outbreak areas has leveled down for the last two months, the chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Wednesday.
In a roundtable discussion with the Inquirer, DA Secretary William Dar said the 425 affected barangays are in Central Luzon, 46 in Calabarzon, 19 in Metro Manila, and seven in Ilocos Region. This figure covers up to November 30.
Affected barangays are those that have recorded positive cases of ASF and have conducted swine depopulation as part of disease control, explained Dar.
“Even isa or dalawa may sakit sa isang area, outbreak area na ‘yan. Ngayon ay bumababa [na], not as much as prior to these last two months,” he said.
(Even one or two [hog/s] inflicted with ASF virus, that’s already an outbreak area. Now it’s been subsiding, not as much as prior to these last two months.)
According to Dar, this means the protocols set by DA are working and that hog-raisers are now more cooperative with the government in controlling the disease.
Dar said a total of 136,770 hogs have been depopulated. These pigs were broken down as follows: 96,575 in Central Luzon, 10,709 in Calabarzon, 4,046 in Metro Manila, and 1,059 in Ilocos Region.
Of those, Dar added, 24,381 were actually affected by the virus while the remaining 112,389 pigs were healthy but nevertheless culled since the animals are situated within a kilometer from ASF virus’ ground zero.