ILOILO CITY: The provincial government will launch a campaign that will intensify public consciousness about the African swine fever (ASF) and focus on biosecurity measures, especially on backyard farms.
Provincial Veterinarian Darel Tabuada, in an interview on Tuesday, said the province has been conducting a massive campaign against the ASF since 2019 but has slowed down due to the restrictions brought by the global pandemic.
“During our launching, we will have a trainer’s training who will conduct the information and education campaign on biosecurity measures at the municipal level,” he said.
He added that the focus will be more on backyard farms since they are more at risk for not having enough biosecurity measures.
Commercial farms have put in place their own biosecurity measures and could survive on their own, Tabuada said.
Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, around 86 percent of swine in the province are grown backyard and 14 percent are in commercial farms.
Of the over 400,000 hog inventory prior to the recorded confirmed ASF cases, more or less 300,000 are in backyard farms.
Based on latest data, eight towns in the province have recorded ASF cases namely Oton, San Miguel, Leganes, New Lucena, Alimodian, Santa Barbara, Mina, and Barotac Nuevo.
These municipalities, except for Barotac Nuevo, are identified as red zone or already having a transmission of the animal disease.
Tabuada said that ASF cases continue to spread in the province but at a slow pace unlike in the municipalities of Oton and San Miguel where affected farms had to call for help in the depopulation of their affected swine.
“Farmers are doing pre-emptive depopulation,” Tabuada said, citing the case of a farm in Barangay Cabilauan in Barotac Nuevo where a voluntary depopulation was done prior to the detection.
Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr will be releasing an executive order for the campaign that will include a provision of financial assistance to affected hog growers.
At a previous press conference, Defensor said they have already validated the affected hog growers in Oton and will be releasing their assistance on Friday.
Source: Philippines News Agency
