MANILA -- The Philippines has temporarily banned the entry of pork and pork products from Vietnam due to reported outbreak of the dreaded African Swine Fever (ASF).
Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) director, Dr. Ronnie Domingo, made the recommendation following the publication of reports from Taiwan saying quarantine authorities intercepted pork from Vietnam which tested positive for ASF.
"I have ordered BAI to immediately effect the ban immediately," said Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel "Manny" Piñol.
The Philippines is one of the few countries in the world which is free from livestock diseases, including foot and mouth disease (FMD).
Vietnam is the latest to be included in the list of countries which could not ship pork and pork products to the country due to ASF disease.
Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture (COA) earlier announced that the ASF virus has been detected in pork products from Vietnam.
The announcement is a very likely indicator that the ASF epidemic in China has crossed the southern border into Vietnam, which will force Taiwan to increase scrutiny of travelers from the Southeast Asian country, according to the report.
Another concern of Taiwan's COA is that the contaminated meat products were discovered by Taiwanese authorities, and that there has been no official notice or warning issued by the Vietnamese government.
According to Liberty Times, the COA has been testing samples of pork products from foreign countries since late August 2018.
Of 1,158 samples, some 928 products have completed the inspection.
So far, some 20 samples were found to be contaminated with ASF, all of which came from China.
However, for the first time on Feb. 15, a tested sample from neighboring Vietnam was discovered to contain the ASF virus. (PNA)
