Members of the African Swine Fever Task Force of Negros Occidental are doubling its effort in watching passengers coming in to the province with cargo and hand carry luggage that contains pork meat products coming from Luzon.
ASF-Task Force Quarantine Head Dr. Ryan Janoya said their group confiscated pork meat products amounting to Ph 7,210.00 from a hand carry luggage of a male passenger from manila last Friday.
These consist of 15 kilograms of longganisa , 2 kilograms of ground pork 2 and 1 kilogram of bacon.
The passenger was stop by the team at the exit of the arrival area of the Bacolod -Silay Airport and were informed of the existing Provincial Ordinance banning the entry of meat products coming from places with confirm positive case of African Swine Fever. Janoya said all meat products coming from any provinces in Luzon are prohibited since last year due to number of ASF positive cases.
Provincial Veterinarian Dr. Renate Decena reminds Negrense to advise their incoming visitors not to bring any meat products since the items will only be confiscated at the airport with a violation notice given to the carrying passengers.
The confiscated item were burn at the designated area at the compound of the airport immediately.
Decena added not only at the airport, they are also advising their team at the Bredco Port to monitor arrivals of shipment from the RoRo vessels from Batangas.
Only meat products from Regions Six and Seven are allowed to enter the province since these regions are ASF free.
The PVO Head inform the consuming public for Ham and other Processed meat to not worry on the supply for the Christmas Holidays since there are enough large and medium meat processors in the region that can answer the demand for the season. He cited three in Negros Occidental and more in Cebu Province.
He further explain that the move of the province of banning the entry of meat products from Luzon is one way to protect Commercial and Backyard Hog raisers in the province which totaled to more than 15,000 and Negros Occidental has the most number of backyard raisers in the country.
Data show from the PVO that Hog Raising in the province is a 6 Billion Peso Industry.
