ASF-FREE GOAL. A dead pig San Jose de Buenavista, Antique on July 11, 2023. The town hopes to be declared African swine fever-free by February so hog raisers could resume their source of livelihood. (Photo courtesy of Gali Magbanua)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – This capital town of Antique hopes to be declared free from the African swine fever (ASF) by February to allow farmers to resume their livelihood and recoup millions of losses.
Municipal Agriculture Officer (MAO) Rene Barte said ASF affected 23 of their 28 villages on June 15 to Oct. 26 last year involving 2,998 swine mortalities amounting to PHP24.1 million.
“We have to wait four months from our last swine mortality on Oct. 26, 2023, for us to be able to conduct a swab test on the pig farms,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.
“Once our municipality is declared ASF-free, they (farmers) could already repopulate their farms.”
The MAO is now identifying five pig farms in each of the 23 barangays hit by ASF for swabbing and sentinelling.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) requires the swab test before a municipality is declared ASF-free.
The municipality may request assistance from the DA in the form of piglets for sentinelling, another test to find out if the piglets could survive once they are re-classified into pink (adjacent to infected zones) from its current red zone (with confirmed cases) status.
“We are acquiring the piglets for free through the DA Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion (INSPIRE) program,” he said.
Barte said they intend to acquire five piglets for every barangay affected as an initial step towards swine repopulation. (PNA)
