President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered all government agencies to comply with the Department of Agriculture’s zoning plan to contain the African swine fever.
Through Administrative Order 22 released Friday, President Duterte ordered the strict implementation of the department’s Administrative Circular 12, or the National Zoning and Movement Plan for ASF that has struck mostly backyard farms in Luzon.
“There is an urgent need to ensure consistent implementation and compliance with Administrative Circular 12 to moreeffectively control the ASF virus toward its complete eradication,” Duterte said in his order signed on Feb. 5.
In related developments:
• The Agriculture department in Davao confirmed Thursday that Davao City is no longer free from African swine fever after two barangays in Calinan District tested positive of the disease.
Regional Director Ricardo Oñate Jr. told reporters that the blood samples from pigs in the villages of Lamanan and Domingga, which were collected and submitted to the Bureau of Animal Industry on Jan. 31 and Feb. 3, tested positive for ASF.
• A popular livestock auction site in Sulop town in Davao del Sur was shut down temporarily starting Wednesday to prevent the possible spread of the African swine fever in the province.
Oñate, director of the Department of Agriculture in the Davao Region, said he had already coordinated with Sulop Mayor Jose Jimmy Sagareno about the move as part of the agency’s measure to contain any ASF infection in neighboring Davao Occidental.
• Gov. Melchor Diclas of Benguet issued an executive order imposing a total ban on the entry of live pigs into the province starting Feb. 6 to curb the spread of the African swine fever in the province.
Duterte also ordered the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to ensure the strict observance of all government offices, instrumentalities and local government units on the zoning plan.
Under its zoning plan, the DA classified the country into various zones with respective movement protocols to regulate the movement of pork and pork products around the country.
The country’s regions or provinces will be classified into “free zones” and “containment zones,” which entail corresponding guidelines on the extent that they can transport and sell pigs, pork and pork products.
The “containment zone” is further divided into four sub-zones:“protected zone,” “surveillance zone,” “infected zone” and “buffer zone.”
Infected zones are areas with confirmed cases of the ASF, which include Mapandan and Bayambang in Pangasinan; Nueva Ecija (Cabanatuan City, Palayan City, Quezon, San Isidro, Santa Rosa, Zaragoza, Cabiao and Gapan City); Cavite (Dasmariñas City, Imus City, General Trias and Bacoor); and Rizal (Rodriguez, Antipolo City, San Mateo, and Taytay).
The surveillance zone are provinces that are high-risk areas because of the dense population of pigs and the trading volumes of pigs and pork products. These are Regions 3 and 4A except Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Rizal and Cavite.
Those in protected zones or areas considered as low-risk provinces are Regions 1 (except Pangasinan), 2 and 5 (except Masbate and Catanduanes).
The entire Visayas and Mindanao have been declared free zones as they remain free of the ASF virus. With PNA