1-KM ASF RADIUS PROTOCOL

“WHERE are the more than 500 hogs from some 900 identified in a house to house census conducted within one kilometer radius from ground zero in Barangay Apalen, Bayambang?”  

This was the question Board Member Jeremy Agerico Rosario asked during the Talakayan sa Kapitolyo program at Urduja House noting that of some 900 hogs that were identified, only 366 have so far been culled and buried as of October 29.

Rosario said failing to account for the 500 hogs as a violation of the 1-7-10 protocol of the Department of Agriculture.

He said without accounting for the 500 hogs, the task force composed of personnel of the DA, provincial veterinary office and LGU Bayambang already moved to the seven-kilometer radius protocol from Apalen that included barangays of Bayambang, Bautista and and Urbiztondo.

The missing 500 hogs that escaped culling was not accounted for during the Question Hour of the Provincial Board on October 28, which was attended by Bayambang Mayor Cezar Quiambao, Municipal Administrator Raymundo Bautista Jr. and the town’s Municipal Agriculture Officer.  

Rosario said even the root cause of the ASF infection in Bayambang was not pinpointed even if the initial 30 hogs that died were from among 60 homegrown hogs in the farm of Barangay Kagawad Victorio Caniezo.

Officials of Bayambang only reported that Caniezo has a neighbor 100 meters away who is a hog trader and whose truck was not disinfected may have contracted the ASF virus in places where it travelled. No name was mentioned by the officials.

Provincial Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued also noted that the identity of the person who transported the hog into Pangasinan who may be criminally and civilly was not identified.

At the same time, Rosario noted that Bayambang by-passed the provincial government when it first reported the ASF incident in Barangay Apalen to the DA regional office.

Mayor Quiambao told the SP that the municipal government learned about the hog deaths in Barangay Apalen only October 14 although the deaths occurred on October 10.

Meanwhile, Fourth District Board Member Liberato Villegas, SP chair on agriculture, told newsmen on Oct. 30 that the SP’s Question Hour on Nov. 4 will seek more clarification about the ASF in Barangay Apalen. (Leonardo Micua)

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