Poor bio-security program v/s pig killer virus worries farmers

March 24, 2019 Metro BLISTT

BAGUIO CITY —Farmers are worried that the government’s program versus the pig-killer virus is inadequate, and portending a possible outbreak in the future threatening heavy losses to hog
industries in the country.
Association of Free Farmers (AFF) national vice president Teody de Belen criticized Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol for the poor prevention and control program against an imminent outbreak that could lead to heavy economic and job losses to the P200 billion hog industry.
“Farmers are concerned over the apparent inadequate preparation of DA towards a possible outbreak of the African Swine Fever (ASF) for the lack of prevention and control program,” de Belen said.
One of the main sources of livelihood and domestic consumption in the country is farming and backyard hog raising.
“Once the disease managed to get into our swine, we will have very serious national problem implications in terms of sources of livelihood of our rural folks and job losses for those working in pig farms,” de Belen added.
The Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) had requested the Senate Committees on Agriculture and on Public Services to investigate the apparent inadequate preparation of DA towards the deadly virus as it crossed the ASEAN region closer to the country through Vietnam for the first time in February this year.
The Senate will begin its investigation on the matter on Wednesday, March 20th. In its monitoring report released on March 1, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) listed Vietnam as the newly infected country with the outbreak spread ongoing which started in four regions killing 2,022 pigs with 99.5% fatality rate since February 20 this year.
The AFS is a severe viral disease affecting domestic and wild pigs. It is responsible for serious production and economic losses. This trans-boundary animal disease can be spread by live or dead pigs, domestic or wild, and pork products.
Its transmission can also occur via contaminated feeds and mites (non-living objects) such as shoes, clothes, vehicles, knives, equipment, etc. due to the high environmental resistance of ASF virus.
Apparently, there is no approved vaccine against ASF which is caused by a different virus, the World Organization for Animal Health had said.
Philippines recently banned pork imports from Vietnam following reports the ASF virus has crossed the ASEAN region.
The country’s pork import ban is still in effect in 14 countries; Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Moldova, South Africa, Zambia, Belgium, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, China and Japan.
Experts described ASF as a contagious, un-treatable and often fatal virus sweeping the global pig population. AFF said that the country needs bio-security measures in place to protect the P200-billion hog industry as soon as possible since local agriculture and industry players themselves have limited information about the disease.
“There is specifically a need for DA to provide technical assistance to raise the capacity of all local government agriculture officials and the industry players and prepare them with the right precautionary measures that directly addresses the peculiarity of the ASF disease,” AFF said.
There is also a need to capacitate our local government units, local officials and the farmers and backyard hog raisers in provinces. They need to know what to do in order to prevent it, de Belen
reiterated.
“But if ever it gets into our borders, they need to know how to control it. So the technical assistance that can be provided by the DA is very strategic and very important at this stage,” de Belen said.
 
Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN