Hog vaccination vs ASF starts September 2

MANILA, Philippines —  The Department of Agriculture (DA) will start vaccinating hogs against African swine fever on Sept. 2 in Lobo, Batangas, the “ground zero” of ASF outbreaks.

DA assistant secretary and spokesman Arnel de Mesa said the vaccination was not delayed and the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) complied with the process required for the program.

“The formal process for the administration of the vaccine has started. We need to ensure that hog farms and their owners are ready,” De Mesa said.

At least 10,000 doses of ASF vaccine acquired through emergency procurement arrived in the country over the weekend.

“The vaccination will be on Sept. 2, 5 and 6,” De Mesa said, adding that an orientation was conducted in Lobo yesterday.

He said up to 160 hog raisers attended the orientation.

“They were eager to participate and they allowed their pigs to be vaccinated,” De Mesa said.

The municipal government of Lobo conducted validation of hog farms after their owners signed up for the vaccination.

“The local government of Lobo checked the biosecurity of each farm to be covered by the vaccination. The next step is to test the hogs and those that will test negative for ASF will be vaccinated,” De Mesa said.

He said the regional animal disease and diagnostics laboratory could only accommodate 445 samples for testing every day.

De Mesa said the towns of Lobo and Calatagan would be first to be covered by the vaccination program as these municipalities were the first to declare a state of calamity because of the outbreak.

“Eventually, (we will cover) the entire province. We will vaccinate hogs in areas outside Lobo like Lipa, where several ASF cases have also been recorded,” he said.

Aside from the 10,000 vaccine doses, the DA is expecting the arrival of another 10,000 doses as the country will procure a total of 600,000 doses of ASF vaccine.

Vaccine subsidy mulled

The DA said it is studying the possibility of subsidizing the rollout of ASF vaccines for backyard hog raisers once a vaccine candidate is proven worthy to be commercially distributed in the country.

DA assistant secretary Constante Palabrica said a proposal to subsidize the commercial distribution of ASF vaccines for small swine farms is being deliberated by the agency.

Palabrica clarified that there is no plan to subsidize commercial farms since vaccines are part of their business models.

Hog industry stakeholders earlier raised concerns that the proposed price for a dose of ASF vaccine, which ranges between P400 and P500, is too expensive for small-scale swine raisers.

“We have discussed the possibility of subsidizing ASF vaccines, which will depend on the availability of funds. But yes, it can be subsidized and we are studying it,” Palabrica told journalists yesterday. – Jasper Emmanuel Arcalas