Iloilo

Iloilo expands ASF red zone as San Miguel town reports infections

Inday Espina-Varona

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Iloilo expands ASF red zone as San Miguel town reports infections

TIGHT WATCH. Pork products bound for Iloilo City await inspection as part of a campaign to prevent the spread of African swine fever, which has infected livestock in at least two towns in Iloilo province.

Iloilo City government

San Miguel town in Iloilo province declares a state of calamity and puts up a 1-kilometer quarantine zone around Barangay San Jose

Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. issued on Tuesday, October 25, a new executive order expanding the province’s African swine fever (ASF) red zone to include San Miguel town.

Despite a tight watch on the movement of hogs and pork products from Oton, the first town to report an ASF outbreak, San Miguel reported infections in Barangay San Jose.

San Miguel Mayor Marina Luz Gorriceta announced a state of calamity and a quarantine on hogs within a 1-kilometer radius of Barangay San Jose.

Executive Order No. 460-A supersedes EO 460, which would have lapsed on Thursday, October 27. The red zone category will remain in place until lifted.

It prohibits the movement of live pigs, pork, pork products (fresh/frozen, uncooked processed pork products, except cooked and canned processed pork products), and swine genetic materials in and out of the two affected municipalities.

Defensor also met online with officials of the province’s towns, and the Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas, Bureau of Animal Industry, National Meat Inspection Service, Philippine National Police, and Bureau of Fire Protection to update the local chief executives on quarantine protocols and transport requirements.

San Miguel, which has around 6,000 to 7,000 hogs, earlier put up seven control points, but the life span of the ASF virus is 15 weeks in chilled meat and three to six months in processed food.

The Iloilo Provincial Veterinary Office has placed the number of ASF cases in Oton at 122, affecting 23 barangays.

ASF is not a threat to human health and cannot be transmitted from pigs to humans. But the World Organization for Animal Health said it can result in massive losses in pig populations, with drastic economic consequences as there is no effective vaccine available. – Rappler.com

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