Truckload of pigs from Camarines Sur intercepted in Albay

DARAGA, Albay –– The Task Force African Swine Fever (TF ASF) intercepted a truckload of live pigs from Camarines Sur province on its way on Thursday afternoon to a hog trader in Daraga town in Albay province, the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) said on Friday.

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

Mella said the delivery truck driver failed to present shipment and animal health permits from the Camarines Sur provincial veterinary, prompting authorities to ban the entry, and directed the driver to send the pigs back to where they came from.

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 as prices of live pigs fell by 50 percent from P110 per kilo to P50 a kilo live weight./lzb