• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Victorias Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez said Feb. 28 that he supports the continues ban to Negros Occidental of pigs and pork products from areas with cases of African swine fever, even as the city logged a zero-ASF for two months already.
Benitez said Victorias has yet to be certified ASF-free by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Animal Industry as per the City Veterinary Office, but no cases of this dreaded swine disease were recorded since the start of this year.
“We can build and grow again slowly…because if you allow everything again, basi magka ASF liwat,” the mayor said of the Feb. 26 executive order of Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson on the total ban on the entry into the province of all live pigs, boar semen, pork, pork products and other related food items from Bacolod City, Negros Oriental, Panay and Guimaras islands, Luzon, Mindanao, Region 8, Province of Cebu, Camotes and Bantayan islands, and other countries affected with ASF, as may be declared by the DA.
But Benitez said there is need to find alternatives while the ban is ongoing, so that affected hog raisers have other means of livelihood. He said the city already distributed chickens, goats, even rabbits so that raisers have alternative source of income.
The city also earlier reported that 96 hog raisers affected by transboundary animal diseases received financial aid of P2,000 each from the provincial government.
Benitez said the financial assistance will help the beneficiaries in their economic recovery, even as the local government also initiated interventions during the outbreak of ASF, like insurance and livestock dispersal.
Victorias first reported nine confirmed cases of ASF in June last year.
As of the Jan. 18, 2024 ASF Disease Status released by the DA-BAI, the city is still categorized as red, or infected zone, along with Valladolid, Silay, San Carlos, Pulupandan, La Castellana, Kabankalan, Hinigaran, and Escalante. | CGC
