(INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES)
TACLOBAN CITY – At least 51 hogs in Barangay Ibarra, Maasin City were culled after it was discovered that they were infected with the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus.
Dr. Rey Alinsub, the city veterinarian, said the affected pigs had to be buried as part of the government protocols to save other hogs from infection.
“This is the first time that Maasin City has recorded ASF cases since it was detected in the country. But we see to it that it will not spread to the other barangays,” he said.
The 51 hogs were owned by 14 backyard hog raisers.
Alinsub said the city government is ready to indemnify the affected hog raisers as Mayor Naccional Mercado set aside P5 million for the businessmen.
Mercado also immediately activated the city’s ASF Task Force to control the further spread of the ASF.
Among the measures instituted by the city government were the activation of barangay responders and the establishment of checkpoints to prevent the entry and exit of pigs, pork, and pork products in Barangay Ibarra.
It is not yet known how the pigs got the infection.
But Alinsub said among the factors that may have caused the infection of the pigs were the village’s proximity to the city government-owned slaughterhouse, the ambulant pig services that come and go to the village, and foul pig feeds.
Barangay Ibarra is located around seven kilometers away from the city proper.
Last March 1, a hog raiser in the village noticed that one of his hogs died. The following day, two more hogs that include a boar from his piggery also died, prompting him to report the matter to the City Veterinary Office.
Alinsub immediately took blood samples from all the hogs at the piggery and sent this immediately to the Regional Animal Diagnostic Laboratory (RADL).
On Friday, the results of the test showed that the pigs were infected with the ASF.
Alinsub said a one kilometer radius from Barangay Ibarra was already declared as a “quarantine zone” where all live swine are under surveillance along with those outside the area.
He appealed to hog raisers to avoid swill feeding because the feeds may include leftovers of food infected with ASF.