The Bureau of Customs has disposed a shipment of food items from China that were found positive for African swine fever.
The food items—dumplings, pork-chicken balls, and roast chicken wings —were disposed of via thermolysis or thermal decomposition at the Integrated Waste Management facility in Trece Martires, Cavite.
The shipment, consigned to Dynamic M International Trading Inc., arrived at the Manila International Container Port on Dec. 11, 2019 from China.
Customs operatives seized the shipment on Jan. 24, 2020 after the Bureau of Animal Industry’s Veterinary Quarantine Services found a sample of pork-celery dumpling to be positive for ASF.
The BOC said the food items were first disinfected by BAI before these were transported to Cavite for disposal.
Last month, Mindanao has recorded its first African swine fever outbreak, with the entire Davao region put on lockdown and at least 13,000 hogs culled.
The Department of Agriculture has imposed border control across Northern Mindanao to prevent the entry of pork and pork-based products from Davao and Caraga.
The outbreak began in the town of Don Marcelino in Davao Occidental on Jan. 31 after about 1,000 pigs died of the disease.
Northern Mindanao has the third largest swine industry in the country, data from the Department of Agriculture showed, accounting for nearly a million swine population with a total estimated value of P25 billion.
Agriculture chief William Dar said commercial and backyard hog growers in Davao region have already incurred an estimated P79.81 million in revenue losses after the dreaded ASF outbreak
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered all government agencies and local government units to ensure the “strict” implementation of the DA’s nationwide zoning plan for ASF to control and contain the spread of the fatal hog disease.
“The African swine fever, despite having no known effect to humans, is a severe and highly contagious viral disease affecting domestic and wild pigs, with a case-fatality rate approaching 100 percent, caused by a resistant virus with no developed cure to date,” the President said in his Administrative Order No. 22.
“There is an urgent need to ensure consistent implementation and compliance with DA Administrative Circular No. 12 to more effectively control the ASF virus toward its complete eradication.”
The Philippines is the world’s largest consumer of pork and the seventh biggest importer.