PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday directed the Department of Agriculture (DA) to fast-track the rollout of vaccines against African Swine Fever (ASF) to curb the spread of the disease.

This developed as the DA targets to complete the purchase of 600,000 ASF vaccines by December this year. 

The Presidential Communications Office in a news release, said the President issued the directive to DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel who reported during the sectoral meeting yesterday in Malacanang, that ASF remains a challenge in the government’s efforts to ease food inflation.

In a briefing after the meeting, Laurel said the DA is expected to use by the end of the month all of the first 10,000 doses of ASF vaccines it had bought.

He said the DA is set to purchase and award the next 450,000 doses by October 10 with 150,000 doses to be delivered by then.

“We hope to complete the procurement of 600,000 doses by the end of December this year,” he added. 

The government had started the controlled trial  of the Vietnam-made ASF vaccine in August and rolled out an initial 150,000 doses this month.

Laurel said the vaccination continues to be done on a voluntary basis with priority given to small hog raisers in areas with high cases of ASF.

The DA had prioritized the provision of free doses of the ASF vaccine to smallholder swine raisers as they account for more than 70 percent of the country’s swine inventory. 

The Philippines reported the first case of ASF in 2019 which has resulted in the culling of more than 300,000 pigs and the drop in pork production.

It has affected the provinces of Batangas, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Cavite, and Rizal.

Laurel said the government remains committed to finding a more suitable vaccine against ASF which is essential to saving billions of investments, revitalizing backyard farms, and ensuring food security in the country.

“Hopefully, everything will be implemented on schedule. We hope by next year, we would shift to repopulating and eventually increase the pig population to 14 million heads,” he said.

He said at present, there are only about 7.5 million heads.