BIOSECURITY MEETING. Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson (left) and Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (2nd from left) during a joint animal biosecurity meeting with the province’s Incident Management Team at the Command Center in the city on Friday afternoon (May 26, 2023). Bacolod, the capital city of Negros Occidental, logged its first two positive cases of African swine fever on the same day. (Photo courtesy of PIO Negros Occidental)
BACOLOD CITY – This capital city of Negros Occidental logged two positive cases of African swine fever (ASF) on Friday after being free from the highly contagious hog disease more than three years since its outbreak was reported in the country.
Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez confirmed the development, following the release of results from the tested blood samples of hogs from a backyard piggery in Barangay Taculing. “We will intensify testing,” he said.
Benitez said the hogs came from Bago City, just south of Bacolod.
Bago is part of the province's Fourth District, which has the most number of swine deaths mainly due to hog cholera in the past weeks. The mayor added that he ordered the culling of pigs within the 500-meter radius of the place where the pigs died.
The two pigs that tested positive for ASF died and were buried six-foot deep immediately.
On Friday afternoon, Regional Executive Director Jose Albert Barrogo, officer-in-charge of the Department of Agriculture-Western Visayas (DA-6), also confirmed the ASF cases in this city.
“What was announced by Mayor Albee was based on the laboratory test we conducted -- the result was positive. But the result will still be confirmed by the Bureau of Animal Industry in Manila. The confirmation will be still be on Monday,” he said.
Barrogo said he advised Benitez to activate the local task force and develop a containment plan to prevent the spread of the disease and a recovery plan for the affected hog raisers.
Bacolod recorded the first ASF cases in Negros Occidental, considered a dark green zone by the Department of Agriculture for being ASF-free.
Also on Friday afternoon, Benitez joined Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson for a joint animal biosecurity meeting of the province’s Incident Management Team (IMT) at the Command Center here.
On Monday night, Negros Occidental banned the entry of all live pigs and pork products from neighboring Negros Oriental, which reported its first swine deaths due to ASF last week.
Meanwhile, Lacson said on Friday the province, which has a PHP6-billion swine industry, is facing a threat from hog cholera that has already caused the death of almost 6,000 pigs as of this week.
“I would say that hog cholera, it’s a threat. It’s really threatening right now. That’s why we have to be careful,” he told reporters.
Lacson cited data on Thursday showed that 5.5 percent of the hog population in Negros Occidental has been affected by swine diseases, mostly hog cholera.
The governor said that through the IMT, the provincial government monitors animal mortality on a daily basis. (PNA)
