A tricycle carrying a pig enters the General Santos City Abattoir on Wednesday, 13 February 2020. Officials said they slaughter 80 heads daily, down from the 100 they used to butcher last month after they imposed stricter measures. MindaNews Photo by ROMMEL G REBOLLIDO
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 27 January) – Hundreds of backyard-grown hogs from a village here were ordered culled by the city government due to suspected African Swine Fever (ASF) contamination.
City Councilor Richard Atendido, chair of the council’s committee on agriculture, said Thursday the “preventive culling” is currently ongoing in backyard farms in Purok San Lorenzo, Barangay Apopong as a precautionary measure pending further laboratory confirmation.
He said several hogs in the area were earlier reported to have exhibited signs and symptoms similar to ASF.
The culling is a standard protocol to prevent the possible transmission and spread of the disease to other areas, he said.
In early 2020, he said the city government also culled several hogs in Barangay Conel due to the suspected presence of ASF.
“This is still a suspected (ASF) contamination. We’re still waiting for the official report and confirmation from the City Veterinary Office (CVO),” Atendido said in an interview over radio station Brigada News FM.
The local government has not yet issued an official statement on the matter but barangay officials reported that initial tests showed that several local hogs turned out positive for the disease.
It listed a total of 403 hogs coming from backyard farms in Purok San Lorenzo as covered by the culling, which started last Monday, Jan 25.
Sources said the contamination supposedly originated from the stockyard of a trader engaged in buying and selling hogs.
Paolo Natividad, Barangay Apopong chair, said the CVO inspected the concerned backyard farm in the area last week.
He said the blood samples taken from several hogs reportedly came out positive for the dreaded ASF.
CVO then ordered the confiscation and immediate culling of hogs within the 500-meter radius of the site as a containment measure.
“They conducted an inventory of the affected hogs for the release of cash assistance to the owners,” Natividad said in a radio interview.
Atendido said the affected hog growers or farmers are entitled to receive compensation from the Department of Agriculture, which ranges from PHP1,000 to PHP5,000 per animal.
He said the South Cotabato Swine Producers Association, the area’s biggest group of commercial hog producers, has released initial contingency assistance.
The city and nearby South Cotabato province, considered as the country’s top hog producer, have been under heightened alert since late 2019 due to the outbreak of ASF in parts of the country.
From January to June last year, CVO reported that a total of 151,923 hogs or an average of over 25,000 heads a month were shipped out from the area.
Some 48 percent of the shipments were delivered to the National Capital Region, 32 percent to Region 3 or the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, and Tarlac, and 20 percent to Region 4-A or Calabarzon. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)
