Mayor Sara Dutere yesterday ordered a total ban of live pig products and pork products from Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental.
“We have banned pork and meat products from those areas whose hogs are contaminated with the African Swine Fever (ASF),” Duterte told reporters after the flag raising ceremony at the City Hall grounds yesterday.
The measure was agreed during a meeting attended by stakeholders in the agriculture sector and officials from ASF-affected areas.
“It was decided that a total ban will happen temporarily,” the mayor said.
Duterte said this is to protect hog farmers and the industry.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has confirmed ASF cases in Davao Occidental, as more than 1,000 hogs have been affected.
The mayor also bared that a suspected ASF case in Davao del Sur has been monitored and tested.
Pending the confirmatory test, officials decided to include Davao del Sur in the ban.
“We have expanded the banning of pork products from Luzon only, during its first outbreak, to Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental,” she said.
“Even without cases of ASF in the city, we are still in high alert especially in the key entry points of the city. City veterinarians are all around these entry points to man and check the hogs upon entering the city,” she said.
She also urged hog raisers, especially those who grow hogs in their backyard “to never feed hogs with swill, for it is very dangerous for these hogs.”
Davao Occidental Gov. Claude Bautista said that barangay officials in their area will be activated as one task force to investigate and identify areas where possible ASF cases are.
“We have to immediately activate them to identify areas where occurrences of ASF are possibly contaminating the hogs,” he said in an interview with reporters.
He said that hog owners should surrender their hogs to the provincial government and they will be compensated depending on the weight of their hogs.
For the infected hogs, they will be surrendered to the DA and equivalent compensation will be given.
“This is to make sure that we really can eliminate ASF in our province. We have to forcibly buy those hogs. Even markets in our place do not sell any meat products, unless they already are certified by our veterinarian office,” he said.
Infected hogs should be buried 7-12 feet deep as protocol in order to assure that they will not be contaminating any hogs.
Bautista also assured that their province already made a move to eliminate ASF cases in their province.
