DAVAO OCCIDENTAL Governor Claude P. Bautista said on Monday that the provincial government is ready to buy pigs from farmers as another measure to prevent the further spread of the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak that started in Don Marcelino town. In an interview in Davao City, Mr. Bautista said the Department of Agriculture (DA) has funds to compensate farmers with confirmed ASF-affected hogs, while the local government will pay for those voluntarily surrendered by raisers. “Ang bayad depende sa kilo ng baboy at depende sa laki. ‘Yung mga affected na mga baboy ang DA na ang magbabayad sa kanila (The price will depend on the weight and size of the pig. For affected pigs, the DA will pay the farmers),” he said. The governor added that barangay officials will be tapped to help immediately identify and map all hog raisers and inform them of the available compensation. “If they don’t know that they will be paid for their pigs, they might try to hide these because that is their livelihood. We would be thinking that there are no more affected hogs, then the outbreak will suddenly recur,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.

‘TRACE’
Meanwhile, quarantine officers will start tracing the trade pattern of Don Marcelino and neighboring areas as part of the containment and control response to the first ASF cases in the southern island of Mindanao. In a statement, the Department of Agriculture- (DA) Davao Region office said the Bureau of Animal Industry will be conducting “trace-back” and “trace-forward” investigations in Davao Occidental as well as in the neighboring municipality of Sulop under Davao Del Sur. Apart from Don Marcelino, the DA team has also reported ASF incidence in several villages of Malita, the capital town of Davao Occidental. Quarantine checkpoints have been set up on 24/7 operations. The Davao del Sur provincial government as well as Davao City have also issued directives banning the entry of all pork and pork products from Davao Occidental. DA Davao Regional Director Ricardo M. Onate, Jr. said another multi-agency coordination meeting was set Monday “to identify the disposal sites for culled hogs and conduct an inventory of the total swine population in affected areas.” The hog industry in the small coastal town is composed of backyard farmers who also practice group rearing, locally known as the Pagalam system, without biosecurity measures. Quarantine measures have been in place at entry points in Mindanao since the ASF outbreak in the northern island of Luzon was confirmed in September last year.

SWILL FEEDING
Meanwhile, Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry President John Carlo B. Tria expressed confidence that the government can manage the outbreak, but also called for the implementation of long-term policies to avoid a recurrence. “I believe the government agencies will do their best to contain ASF infected pork. What is more important moving forward is to discourage swill feeding, or pigs eating recycled food, which may contain ASF infected pork, the virus of which can survive processing and cooking,” he said in a statement on Monday. The ASF, while not harmful to humans, is fatal to pigs. “These have been dealt with before,” Mr. Tria said, also referring to the recent bird flu outbreak in Hunan, China, “With collective efforts we can beat these outbreaks again.” — Maya M. Padillo

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