Article by:
Franck Dick Rosete
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY --- The Misamis Oriental provincial government will continue its hog repopulation program despite a "hold" request due to the threat of the African swine fever (ASF), the Provincial Veterinary Office (ProVet) said in an interview on Tuesday.
Dr. Benjamin Resma, the provincial veterinarian, bared this in response to Governor Yevgeny Vicente Emano’s disclosure that a hog raiser association has requested a temporary stoppage on the repopulation program amid the current ASF threat.
“We will continue the repopulation based on our guidelines. We are now continuing our surveillance to prove to the hog raisers that there are areas that are already negative [in ASF] based on our surveillance,” Resma said.
Resma reported Monday the new ASF cases in the barangays of Minsapinit, Santiago, and Tinabalan in Gingoog City after 100 days of not recording a single case.
Resma said they are currently continuing their surveillance by collecting blood samples from hogs to prove that there are affected areas that are already negative of ASF.
A ProVet surveillance activity involving the collection of blood samples in the barangays of Retablo and Lubluban in Libertad town and some barangays in Talisayan town yielded negative results.
Meanwhile, ProVet said it has been continuing to identify the pilot barangays to receive the package prepared by the provincial government as assistance for the affected hog raisers.
During the announcement of the repopulation, Resma said they will provide 11 ready-to-breed hogs per ASF-affected barangay.
Resma said they may prioritize the barangays from the second district of the province as the first ASF case was detected in the second district.
According to ProVet’s data, a total of 765 ASF-affected farmers from the 99 barangays in the province have been affected by the depopulation in 2021.
In February last year, the provincial government immediately banned hog raising in the entire province after detecting ASF cases in Barangay Jampason in Initao town and Barangay Pagawan in Manticao. (With reports from Nef Luczon/PNA)
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