Live pigs from ASF-hit Camarines Sur intercepted in Albay

DARAGA, Albay –– The Task Force African Swine Fever (TF ASF) intercepted a truck loaded with live pigs from Camarines Sur province being delivered on Thursday afternoon to a hog trader here, the Albay Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) said on Friday.

Pancho Mella, PVO chief, said the TF ASF checkpoint in Barangay Kilicao intercepted around 4 p.m. a delivery truck loaded with 32 live pigs from Bula town in Camarines Sur.

Mella said the driver of the delivery truck, who was not identified, failed to present shipment and animal health permits from the Camarines Sur provincial veterinary office.

This prompted authorities to prevent their entry and tell the driver to return the pigs to where they came from.

Camarines Sur joined the list of ASF-affected areas in the country after several dead pigs in the province tested positive for the disease earlier this month.

Mella, in a phone interview, said the pigs were to be delivered to a hog trader in this town.

Meanwhile, hog raisers here are suffering from the brunt of the ASF scare as prices of live pigs fell by 50 percent from P110 per kilo to P50 a kilo for live weight./lzb