The Bureau of Animal Industries (BAI) said there are commercial farms that are now under investigation for possible infection of African swine fever (ASF).
BAI did not identify these farms but noted corrective actions are being made by the owners.
“These commercial farms have their own veterinarians so they conduct tests and depopulation then they give the summary of figures to me. We don’t need to suspend (the farms’ operations) since the question is if they are able to control the situation,’’ said BAI national director Ronnie Domingo.
He said it is likely the disease is spread by human carriers as nearby areas are mostly infected backyard farms or could have been caused by vector animals such as rats, cats and birds that are resting inside the commercial farms during night time.
Domingo said there are also pigs under investigation in the Visayas, the only major region in the country where ASF is not yet officially confirmed.
Domingo said government is in the middle of modifying protocols on containing ASF in order to balance the efforts to stop the spread of the disease and ensuring the stability of the supply of pork.
“There is an initial consultation and we expect a recommendation this week. We will weigh food supply and disease control since if we reduce the diameter (of areas being investigated), disease control may suffer. If we maintain the one-kilometer radius, more pigs (that are not sick) will be culled but food supply will be hit,’’ Domingo said.
Under the current 1-7-10 protocol for ASF, hogs within a one-kilometer radius of an area confirmed with the disease are culled.
Based on the government’s latest data, over 230,000 pigs have been culled to stop the spread of ASF.
