GENERAL SANTOS CITY –– Veterinary officials here are seeking additional funds for bio-security measures in case the African swine fever (ASF) spreads into the city.
City veterinarian Dr. Antonio Ephrem S. Marin said General Santos was still free from the disease and they would do everything to protect the city’s P2.5-billion hog industry.
He said they would submit to the City Council a request for an additional P5 million, on top of the over P4 million standby funds they already have.
The money would be used, Marin explained, to indemnify backyard hog raisers so that the disease doesn’t spread to big commercial hog farms.
“The idea is we will buy hogs from backyard raisers and replace these with other animals like cattle, goat, or chicken,” Marin said.
“It is the backyard hog raisers that are vulnerable to the spread of the ASF because many of them lack the necessary bio-security measures, which the bigger hog farms strictly practice,” Marin added.
Authorities have beefed up measures to seal the city from ASF as the disease has already spread to Davao City.
“We have already put up checkpoints in October last year, and we are strengthening these,” Marin said.
The checkpoints are located at the national highway in Barangay Tinagacan, at the diversion highway in Barangay Mabuhay, Barangay Apopong, and Barangay Buayan.
Marin said they learned that some hog dealers try to sneak their produce by taking a barangay road in Upper Labay to avoid the Tinagacan checkpoint, which is the entry from Malungon, Sarangani, and Davao del Sur.
“We are advancing that checkpoint to Pulatana, in front of the Army Brigade headquarters,” Marin added.
Because of the ASF infections in nearby provinces, demand for pork had gone down, resulting in reduced prices.
From P200 per kilo, pork now sells at P180 in the public market.
In Davao del Sur, meat vendors also reported weak sales of pork, although retail prices remained stable at P200 to P240 per kilo.
Meat vendors noted that consumers shifted from pork to beef and chicken, and even fish due to fear of the swine disease.
Lyn-Lyn Enero, a pork vendor in Bansalan town, said her daily income was cut by half since Sunday when the ASF outbreak was made known.
In Digos City, Alma Ephan said the usual 100 kilos of pork she sells had gone down to only 40 to 50 kilos “as ASF brought fear to consumers.” With Orlando B. Dinoy, Inquirer Mindanao/lzb