The Philippines, hit recently by the dreaded African swine fever, has approved deflecting measures, including movement controls for pigs and pork products as well as surveillance on live hog transport, to check the spread of the frightening fever.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar himself has said: “We must step up our surveillance and monitoring of transport of live pigs as well as pork products.”
READ: Don’t worry despite swine fever—Dar
This, after President Rodrigo Duterte and his Cabinet on Oct. 11 approved a lock-down to cordon off infected areas in Bulacan and Pampanga.
READ: Bulacan hogs culled amid swine flu signs
At the same time, the Department of Agriculture has increased its financial assistance to hog raisers affected by the African swine fever to encourage them to report and surrender their pigs within the one-kilometer radius from the site of infection or ground zero.
Noel Reyes, spokesperson of Agriculture William Dar, said the agency had raised the cash aid from P3,000 per pig culled within the 1-7-0 kilometer protocol to P5,000 to prevent the ASF virus.
Hog raisers who have received P3,000 per culled pig would still receive an added P2,000, he said.
“That is one of the many ways to discourage the hog raisers from selling their pigs. That is the reason why we have increased it [aid]. The [previous] amount was small,” he said.
“Please surrender your pigs, instead of selling them to traders,” he added.
Backyard hog raisers are also covered by the increase, DA said.
“We must step up our surveillance and monitoring of transport of live pigs as well as pork products,” Dar said.
Hogs tested positive for the ASF virus rose from 7,400 pigs to 12,000 in August.
The department said last week the numbers of pigs that tested positive for the virus had increased to 12,000 from 7,400 at the end of August.
The Department of Budget and Management has approved the additional fund from the Office of the President’s emergency funds.
