The Benguet Provincial Veterinary Office is closely monitoring the reported African swine fever cases in Mankayan town following the deaths of several swines due to ASF.
Provincial Veterinarian Miriam Tiongan said concerned personnel are testing sick swines in four affected barangays in Mankayan namely Suyoc, Bulalacao, Taneg, and Guinaoang.
OpVet has recorded three deaths and 20 culled or depopulated swines from one raiser in Bulalacao and eight culled and three deaths from one raiser in Suyoc while two ASF cases in Taneg.
She said based on their initial investigation, the case started from infected meat sold in Guinaoang. The source of the infected meat is still being traced.
OpVet reported that Mankayan is the primary source of swines and pork meat among 13 towns when the office first recorded the ASF case in the province.
OpVet has suggested to the local government to come up with measures such as an executive order to curb the spread of the swine disease that is at 100 percent mortality rate and still has no cure.
For the month of June, OpVet listed 6,820 swine heads brought from other areas of Benguet while 1,476 heads of piglets were shipped to the province.
On the same month, the office denied the entry of shipments of 683 swine heads and 21,827.32 kilos of pork and beef meats to the province through its quarantine checkpoints for lack of proper documents such as sanitation permits from sources.
Active cases of ASF were recorded in Tuba and Itogon while Kapangan, Kibungan and Bakun ASF-free.
Meanwhile, the province recently distributed 42 heads of swine breeders to hog raisers in Kapangan, Kibungan, and Bakun as part of its repopulation program.
Buguias, Kabayan, and Tublay will soon receive breeders as part of the P1.5 million-worth hog repopulation program of the province.
There are 5,693 hog raisers inventoried in the province, most of whom are backyard raisers that have so far raised a total of 34,000 pigs. – Ofelia C. Empian
May 2, 2024
