THE United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called an emergency meeting of specialists from nine Asian countries, including the Philippines, to discuss measures in the event African Swine Fever spreads from China.
The meeting, taking place in Thailand and scheduled to conclude on Friday, hopes to establish a regional stakeholder network which will organize measures to control the disease if it makes its way to other countries.
Representing the Philippines were Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) officer-in-charge and director Ronnie D. Domingo and BAI Animal Disease Control Section officer-in-charge Anthony C. Bucad.
Other countries sending specialists were Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, South Korea, and Vietnam.
“It’s critical that this region be ready for the very real possibility that ASF could jump the border into other countries. That’s why this emergency meeting has been convened — to assess where we are now — and to determine how we can work together in a coordinated, regional response to this serious situation,” FAO Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases in Asia Regional Manager Wantanee Kalpravidh said in a statement.
FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Juan Lubroth added: “It’s very important to understand how this virus has spread, historically, within the pig and wild boar populations in other regions of the world, so we can adapt and tailor appropriate responses and determine the correct course of action needed here in this region.”
European countries affected now by ASF are Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine.
In a text message on Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said that there is “no immediate risk thus far” of ASF affecting the hog industry.
According to the Center for Food Security and Public Health of Iowa State University, “ASF is often introduced into a herd by the feeding of uncooked or undercooked garbage (swill) containing contaminated pork products. Once infected, the virus is easily spread between pigs by direct contact or indirectly from contact with contaminated objects, such as vehicles, equipment, footwear, or clothing.”
ASF was first detected at a pig farm in Siberia in March 2017, and was detected in northeast China northeast at the beginning of August 2018, the FAO noted. — Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio
