The Department of Agriculture (DA) proposes to allow the movement of healthy pigs from Red Zones or areas with active cases of African swine fever (ASF) to other zones to ensure stability of pork supply and to sustain the livelihood of hog raisers.
Asis Perez, DA undersecretary for policy, planning and regulation, said the proposed relaxed guidelines came after a series of consultations with local government officials, agriculturists and industry groups in Calabarzon over the weekend following a resurgence of ASF, particularly in Batangas.
“The government will ease regulation but we have to make sure only live and healthy pigs are transported, not the infected ones, to avoid the spread of ASF. It’s important that we ensure infected animals stay in Red Zones,” Perez said, in a statement.
DA also approved a higher rate for indemnification for ASF-infected pigs to encourage farmers to surrender their animals instead of selling them to unscrupulous traders who eventually transport the infected swine to other areas for slaughtering.
Deogracias Victor Savellano, DA undersecretary for livestock, said indemnification has been raised to P4,000 for piglets, P8,000 for medium-sized hogs and P12,000 for sows and bigger hogs.
Previously, the maximum indemnification was P5,000 per pig.
Savellano said P50 million has been set aside as initial budget for indemnification.
Dante Palabrica, DA assistant secretary for poultry and swine, said 10,000 doses of ASF vaccines arrived from Vietnam yesterday for the emergency inoculation of healthy growers in Red Zones as a response to the resurgence of ASF.
The vaccines are being prepared for possible inoculation in Batangas this week.
Palabrica said the vaccination is part of a wider controlled testing of the ASF vaccine from Vietnam, adding other vaccine manufacturers from the US, South Korea and Vietnam have applied with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be part of the controlled testing to be conducted by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
The DA said these applicants have vaccines that could be injected to breeders and growers.
Palabrica also assured FDA has set strict requirements for the controlled testing to ensure vaccine efficiency, including genome sequencing of the virus to ensure that inoculation will not result in mutation.
Based on latest data from BAI, as of August 8, 2024, active cases of ASF in the country are contained in 11 regions, 22 provinces, 64 municipalities and 251 barangays.
