CEBU, Philippines — Live hogs, pork and pork-related products from Carcar City, Cebu are not allowed to enter other local government units in Cebu province, but the city’s prized delicacy – chicharon – is not covered by the ban.
After a positive case of African Swine Fever was detected in the slaughtered pigs in Carcar, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia issued an executive order that temporary bans the entry of live hogs, sows, piglets, boar semen, pork and pork-related products (fresh/frozen pork products and uncooked processed food products) from there to other towns and cities of the province.
This means that Carcar is being “isolated” through strict border control which consists in checkpoints being put up in at least six access points to and from the city.
“For precautionary measure we have immediately closed the borders. I have prohibited bringing out live hogs even pork and just up to that. Dili lang sa ang chicharon because we know that chicharon from Carcar is actually coming from other areas. Kani lang sa, just the meat and the live hogs,” Garcia told reporters yesterday.
Since February?
Carcar City Mayor Patricio Barcenas said he first received reports of pigs dying in his city as early as first week of February.
He said the hogs came from various sources such as slaughterhouses and some raised in backyards. It prompted him to seek help from the provincial veterinary office in testing the suspected pigs through their blood samples.
Barcenas said that out of roughly 150 pigs tested, 30 were positive for ASF, which led him to order his constituents to strengthen pig monitoring and isolation of the areas affected, even before Garcia issued her order.
Though he could not identify the barangays exactly affected, he said that out of Carcar's 15 barangays, 11 were ASF-affected. But he reiterated that during their recent testing of about 200 pigs, all tested negative for the disease.
Barcenas said he will meet with the municipal council by Tuesday afternoon to discuss the possibility of ordering the culling of pigs in affected barangays. Culling means that animals in disease-endemic areas, infected or not, are slaughtered to prevent further disease spread.
Barcenas also assured the public that the pork used in making the famous delicacy, chicharon, is imported from other areas, such as Australia.
Right now, he said, the city is making sure to screen all the pigs entering the city and ensure raisers can provide appropriate papers for them.
Barcenas also mentioned the possibility of providing financial assistance to hog raisers should the disease spread further and affect much of the city's hog industry.
Not covered
Carcar’s chicharon is still allowed to be sold in and outside of Carcar because in Garcia’s Executive Order No. 9-B, the banning is not applicable to cooked and canned processed pork products.
Under Section 3 of Garcia’s EO, there will be intensified surveillance and monitoring of local swine population in the barangays, pig farms and stockyards in Carcar City.
Transportation of live hogs and pork genetic materials, pork and pork-related products are also prohibited and veterinary checkpoints will be established by the local ASF Task Force and the police at all the entry and exit points in Carcar City.
Garcia has also prohibited swill feeding and pig slaughter outside the slaughterhouse. Swill feeding is the traditional practice of feeding food scraps to pigs or “lamaw.”
The Provincial Veterinary Office has deployed its personnel in Carcar, together with the the barangay animal health aides (BAHA), “to check all the possible areas and to first immediately contain the area where these samples turned out positive, so that none of the pork or whatever pork-related products will be able to out of that particular sitio, or that particular barangay.”
Another executive order was also issued by the governor to regulate the movement and export of live hogs from farms that have no accreditation from the Bureau of Animal Industry in Cebu Province.
“Breeder and commercial swine farms duly accredited by BAI may be allowed to export pigs to other parts of the country subject to the concurrence of the Provincial Veterinary Office,” read part of EO No. 9-C issued.
According to Garcia, there should be a Veterinary Health Certificate and a backyard swine farm registration for the local transportation of pigs within Cebu province.
“Now that the challenge is here, it is how we shall answer to that challenge, whether we will be able to contain it or will it spread to the other towns and cities of the Province. And that is the reason why we are implementing very, very strict controls. We have isolated Carcar and we have warned all other LGUs,” Garcia said.
Other Cebu areas
Meanwhile, Department of Agriculture assistant secretary for Visayas Salvador Diputado said that aside from Carcar City, the department also got some blood samples of hogs from other areas in Cebu that are possible to have been infected with the ASF.
Diputado said that these blood samples were already sent to the Bureau of Animal and Industry in Manila.
“Naa pay mga blood samples taken from different parts of the province ug atoa nang gi-forward sa Bureau of Animal and Industry and the results mogawas na in the next few days,” he said, refusing to divulge the names of places where the blood samples taken from.
Diputado also appealed to the public to report immediately to their respective local government units if they see hogs (especially in backyard raising) to have developed symptoms of ASF fever.
Infected pigs ‘sold’
Carcar City veterinarian Dr. Mary Ann Gabona, in a separate interview, said that as part of their ASF monitoring and surveillance, they recently took at least 100 blood samples from hogs in 15 barangays and the results showed negative results.
“We got over a 100 blood samples sa atong mga hogs nga naa sa backyard sa atong tanan mga barangay unya base sa resulta kay negative ang tanan,” Gabona said.
She said that those slaughtered pigs, whose blood samples tested positive, were already sold to meat consumers.
“Nabaligya na gyud to kay naihaw na man. Mao na ang among hangyo sa atong katawhan nga dili lang sad gyud mo-feed og lamaw ngadto sa mga baboy kay ang naigo gyud aning ASF kay ang mga baboy ra man gyud,” Gabona added.
Following the confirmation of ASF in Carcar, Cebu City has added Carcar in its list of areas where pork meat and other pork-related products are banned. – Robhe Jane C. Yara,Caecent N. Magsumbol and Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon, JMD (FREEMAN)