African Swine Fever has broken out in a fourth barangay in Quezon City, city authorities said Wednesday.
READ: ASF hits QC village; Agri warns raisers
The city government’s chief veterinarian, Dr. Anamarie Cabel, said a new case of ASF broke out in Barangay Pasong Tamo.
“Yes, we have culled 104 pigs there,” she told the Manila Standard. “Blood test results were positive for ASF.”
At the moment, Cabel said, Barangay Payatas was their “area of concern [since] all pigs [there] are infected.”
Out of the 5,000 pigs in the village, only 2,465 of them have been culled, she added.
“Culling of other pigs is still ongoing,” she said.
READ: ASF outbreak Agri’s challenge
Under the Department of Agriculture’s 1-7-10 protocol, all pigs within a one-kilometer radius of the outbreak should be culled.
The city government has advised backyard hog-raisers in Barangay Roxas, a nearby village from Tatalon, to surrender their pigs for culling.
Hogs were culled in Bagong Silangan, Payatas and Tatalon after they were tested positive for ASF.
Meanwhile, the provincial government of Aklan imposed a 90-day ban on the entry of live hogs and processed pork from Luzon and countries affected by ASF.
Aklan has joined the ranks of Bohol, Cebu City, Cebu province, Davao City, Iloilo, Mandaue City,
Misamis Oriental and Negros Occidental, which have imposed similar temporary bans.
In Luzon, Pampanga also sealed its borders to prevent the entry of live hogs and all pork products from neighboring provinces.
The ASF scare did not faze the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio, however, from scheduling the longest longganisa festival on Oct. 6.
“It will be 7.5 kilometers-long, which will be held by around 1,000 people spread, along the uphill portion of Session Road [back and forth],” said Andrew Pinero, HRAB spokesman and the customer relations manager of the Baguio Country Club.
The longanisa will be displayed uncooked and sold to the public at a cheap price.
Pinero said the event marked the third time the HRAB, in partnership with Alabanza meat shop—the maker of what is now known as “Baguio longanisa”—made it an attraction of the Hotel and Restaurant Tourism weekend.
He said the pork meat used for the longanisa is free from the ASF virus plaguing the hog industry in various provinces. With PNA
READ: Consumers, pork traders uneasy amid ASF scare