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BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Live pigs from Negros Occidental can now be shipped to the territory of Cebu province.
This comes after 250 live hogs from Kabankalan City were barred from entering Cebu province via Santander port on Tuesday, September 17, because the livestock did not have farm registration documents from the Bureau of Animal Industry.
But according to BAI guidelines, permits will only be given to animals from commercial farms, and not those raised in backyards. The blocked shipment were backyard swines purchased by a trader in a livestock auction market.
Negros Occidental Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena said the provincial government lobbied to the Cebu provincial officials to reconsider the shipment of live pigs from the province since it is free from the dreaded African swine fever virus.
Decena said he received a call from his counterpart in the Cebu provincial government Thursday, Seprember 19, confirming that backyard hogs from the province can now enter Cebu provided these have farm certificates issued by the Provincial Veterinary Office.
He said the Cebu provincial government has amended on Wednesday night, September 18, the veterinary quarantine requirements stipulated in the executive order issued by its governor, Gwendolyn Garcia.
With this, Decena immediately issued a memorandum to all district veterinarians to facilitate the backyard swine farm certificates for the shipment of the live pigs from the province to Cebu.
He said traders from Cebu have also signified their interest to procure live pigs from the livestock auction market in Kabankalan City next week.
On average, around 500 live pigs from the southern part of Negros Occidental are shipped to other provinces every week, he said, while shipment of market hogs from north Negros Occidental are still being inventoried.
“There’s no problem with the shipment of live pigs from the north since it came from commercial farms. It was transported to the Cebu province from the port of Escalante City. For the south, we have no commercial piggery farm there,” he said, adding that swine shipment from the south will pass through the port in neighboring Negros Oriental.
Due to the low demand, Negros Occidental has an oversupply of pork, causing the prices to drop, Decena said.
He said the ASF task force continues its aggressive campaign to stop dreaded virus from reaching the territories of Visayas and Mindanao.
Earlier, Negros Occidental has banned the entry of pork and pork products from Luzon to protect the province’s P6 billion swine industry. – Rappler.com
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