THE Office of the Provincial Veterinarian (OPVet) maintained that the African Swine Fever (ASF) that raged on in Pangasinan for two years ago was already contained with only one hog reported to have died in Mapandan town in January this year.

Dr. Jovito Tabarejos, acting provincial veterinarian, said since the infected hog was disinfected and buried by its owner, no other hog was reported infected.

He said the reason why ASF spread quickly in 2019 was because hog owners butchered their infected hogs and quickly sold them to households to recoup their investments while still others hid their infected hogs to avoid detection by government to be culled.

Tabarejos told Third District Board Member Veci Ventanilla that while there are no more ASF-infected hogs in the province, only the Department of Agriculture can declare Pangasinan ASF-free.

He said Agriculture Secretary William Dar already allocated P30 million for ‘Bye-bye ASF-Bantay ASF” program in Pangasinan which seeks to to re-start the hog industry in 27 towns.

The program will distribute piglets or sentinel hogs, including feeds, to backyard raisers and progress of the program will strictly monitored by barangay captains and municipal agriculturists for 45 days.

If the program is successful, more backyard raisers will be allowed to raise sentinel hogs.

Tabarejos already submitted names of some 200 qualified backyard raisers for the program.

He said commercial hog raisers also affected by ASF will get assistance from private companies so that they can re-start their operations since Pangasinan used to be the biggest supplier of hogs for Metro Manila. (Leonardo Micua)

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