- GILBERT BAYORAN
Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia ordered the temporary banning on the entry of live hogs, sows, piglets, boar semen, pork and its related products from Negros Island, for a period of 30 days, or until April 5 this year.
This was after the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) Animal Disease Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory confirmed the detection of an African swine fever viral DNA in blood samples obtained, as a result of ASF surveillance activities in Carcar City, Cebu.
In an executive order, Garcia said that the pigs, from where the blood samples were obtained, were kept at the barangay stockyards, together with pigs originating from Negros Island.
Being the largest pork producing province in Central Visayas, Garcia said the provincial government of Cebu considers ASF a very serious concern as it is a fatal and highly contagious disease of domestic and wild pigs, with a mortality rate of 100 percent.
She also revoked all passes issued for livestock transport vehicles and reefer vans from Negros Island, until further notice.
The ASF virus causes a hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in pigs.
The Provincial Veterinary Office has declared that Negros Occidental remains ASF-free, even as cases already spread in Iloilo, Guimaras, and Capiz./GB
