Davao Norte town to conduct pigs profiling vs. ASF

DAVAO CITY -- Santo Tomas town in Davao del Norte will conduct pigs profiling of all backyard raisers and swine companies to determine the occurrence of African swine fever (ASF), an agriculture officer said Sunday.

“If and only if this ASF would come to our municipality, through the pig profiling, we will be able to directly identify the area covered of the disease, number of pigs affected, and we can easily give interventions to it,” municipal agriculturist officer, Engr. Elmer Degorio, told Philippine News Agency (PNA).

Degorio said assessors coming from the Municipal Agriculture Office (MAGRO) will be conducting a profiling in all villages in the town, and will be supervised by some local government unit personnel.

“The data gathered will be used also to easily locate the affected raisers,” he said.

As a protocol, Degorio said the MAGRO will immediately respond to reports with suspected swine diseases.

He noted that blood samples are collected to identify the diseases.

Degorio assured that the municipality is free from ASF, and it is strictly implementing the “no veterinary clearance or permit, no entry” policy for pork and pork products.

“We are crafting the request to ban these pork and pork products. We might have it next week,” he said.

Degorio further said they have intensified their ASF awareness campaign in various barangays.

He added that a forum with swine stakeholders in their municipality will be conducted on October 5 in Barangay New Katipunan, highlighting lectures of Department of Agriculture’s (DA) 1-7-10 protocol.

The DA Regional Field Offices (RFO) and the Bureau of Animal Industry are conducting joint activities in line with the 1-7-10 protocol in managing, containing, and controlling the suspected disease or diseases.

This means that within one-kilometer (km)-radius of infected farms, BAI and concerned RFO have set up quarantine checkpoints at strategic locations to prevent the movements of all live pigs, pork, and pork-related products.

All pigs tested positive within the area are culled.

For swine farms within seven-km radius, BAI and concerned RFO conduct surveillance procedures, test animals to determine extent of infection, and limit animal movement.

In farms within 10-km radius, it is required to have a mandatory disease reporting. (PNA)

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https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1081755
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