Arlan Mangelen, regional executive director of the Department of Agriculture-Region 12 (PNA GenSan photo)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY – The Department of Agriculture (DA) 12 (Soccsksargen) has called “false information or fake news” a report by a national television network that the dreaded African swine fever (ASF) has spread to South Cotabato province.
In a public advisory issued on Friday, DA-12 executive director Arlan Mangelen “vehemently” denied the presence of ASF in the province as reported in ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol on Thursday night.
Mangelen said the new report, which cited Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) chairman Rosendo So as the source, is “erroneous” and has no basis.
“(So) did not and never mentioned that South Cotabato has ASF or the dreaded disease has entered the said province during his interview,” he said.
Mangelen appealed to the ABS-CBN management, through its TV Patrol news program, to retract or correct the report.
Citing a report from DA’s Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) as of last December 21, he said South Cotabato remains ASF-free and measures are being undertaken to ensure that the disease would not enter the area.
Mangelen was referring to BAI’s update on the zoning status of the country’s 17 regions in line with the implementation of the national zoning and movement plan for ASF.
The entire South Cotabato, including this city, is under the “dark green” zone or among the areas that remain free from ASF.
Six municipalities in the region, five in North Cotabato and one in Sarangani, are under the “red” or infected zone.
He said DA-12, through its livestock program and regulatory division, has been providing disinfectants, vacutainers or blood collection tubes, personal protective equipment, and other supplies to local government units in the region to assist their ASF prevention and surveillance activities.
Dr. Flora Bigot, head of the South Cotabato Veterinary Office, said the province remains on high alert against ASF and the local government has been continuously monitoring its borders to prevent the entry of the disease.
Bigot said the entry of live hogs and pork products from areas affected by disease outbreaks remains prohibited.
“We have eight operational veterinary quarantine checkpoints and we’re also conducting periodic sampling and testing of hogs in our boundary areas,” she said in a radio interview.
Bigot said they have also intensified the enforcement of Ordinance 36, which institutionalized the province’s control measures against ASF.
The ordinance, which took effect last December 4, sets the “regulatory guidelines and preventive measures to prevent the entry of ASF” in the province.
South Cotabato and this city are among the top producers of live hogs and pork in the country, shipping out at least 15,000 heads every two weeks to Metro Manila and Luzon.
The South Cotabato Swine Producers Association, an association of commercial swine farms based in the area, has a combined sow population of 55,000 and produces more than 45,000 heads of hogs a month.
About 10 percent of the group’s production is consumed in Soccsksargen. It supplies the 90 percent surplus to markets in Luzon and the Visayas. (PNA)
