Camarines Sur town to cull 250 pigs after confirmed ASF cases

LEGAZPI CITY –– Some 250 pigs in the town of Bombon in Camarines Sur province would be culled Friday after the 23 pigs that died there tested positive of African Swine Fever (ASF) disease.

Emilia Bordado, Department of Agriculture (DA) in Bicol spokesperson, said the agency has dispatched on Thursday veterinary personnel to cull at least 250 pigs raised in the declared ASF-positive area and within its 1-km radius.

Bordado, in a phone interview, said ASF cases were reported in at least 13 villages of Bombon.

To stop the spread of ASF, the DA has declared a “lockdown” in that area where all kinds of animals and meat products coming in and out of Bombon would be banned. The town is 9 km away from Naga City.

Bordado said even their veterinary personnel, who would perform the culling, would be isolated for 15 days in the town’s designated quarantine facility.

In Calabanga town, veterinarians were also dispatched to check on the report that several pigs have died due to ASF.

In Naga City, local officials placed the city under lockdown due to the ASF incidents in Bombon.

Earlier, members of the Task Force African Swine Fever intercepted and confiscated 577 kilos of processed meat products from ASF-affected regions in the cities of Naga and Legazpi.

Bordado said the agency would give P5,000 cash assistance to livestock farmers for every swine afflicted with the disease to be culled. The cash assistance would not exceed 20 swine heads per farmer./lzb