No ASF in Laoag City—exec

 

The city government confiscated at least 340 kilos of hog meat shipped from Manila without papers and proper documentation. The confiscated meat was later put into a pit for burial to avoid ASF that is spreading in the country. (Doms dela Cruz)

By Dominic B. dela Cruz

Staff Reporter

Laoag City—With the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the country, city slaughterhouse officer-in-charge Sheila De Leon Rapatan announced that there is “zero case” in the city.

“Awan kaso ti ASF iti Laoag City kasi naiget a banbantayan dagiti meat inspectors tayo dagiti sumsumrek ditoy slaughterhouse tayo,” Ms.  Rapatan stated.

The city government’s meat inspectors recently attended a meeting conducted by the National Meat Inspection and Sanitation (NMIS) on how to deal with the ASF.

As a result, Ilocos Norte banned the entry of live hogs from the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan.

A 24-hour quarantine in Badoc and partly in Sinait, Ilocos Sur will strictly check live hogs entering the province of Ilocos Norte.

Records show, according to Ms. Rapatan, that almost all rural barangays in Laoag has hog raisers.

With this, Ms. Rapatan said hog meats being sold at the city public market are locally produced.

Meanwhile, one hog died due to hypertension and not ASF as suspected.

“Daytoy ngamin a baboy ket naggapu ngamin Vintar ket iti pannaki-ferry na ket tay kurong-kurong ket adu da naggi-innipit da kan napudot iti pannakai byahe da ket saan na a nakayanan,” she explained.

She added that the hog’s owner understood and accepted the situation.

“Saan met a mabalin a partien ta isun to pay iti rason tay food poisoning or LBM [loose bowel movement] ken naduma-duma pay a sakit a maala namuna ket ag-brownish ken black daydi dara nan,” Ms. Rapatan expounded.

Relative to this, news reports show that Pampanga also banned the entry of live pigs into its territory to protect its livestock and meat processing industries from the dreaded ASF.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) confirmed on September 9, 2019 that the ASF virus was the cause of hog deaths in the provinces of Bulacan and Rizal.

Iloilo also joined the increasing list of provinces and cities which are restricting the entry of live hogs and pork products into their territories to protect their livestock from being infected by the ASF virus.

The Department of Agriculture has confirmed ASF outbreaks in farms in the provinces of Rizal and Bulacan. While the DA has blacklisted the following ASF-infected countries: Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Luxembourg, Belgium, Bulgaria, Moldova, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, South Korea, and China.

Provinces with existing versions of containment are Cebu, Bohol, Misamis Oriental, Negros Occidental, and Pampanga. Cities which sealed their border entries, particularly their seaports are Cebu City and Mandaue City.

African swine fever has spread to Metro Manila from adjoining Rizal and Bulacan, provinces that the government earlier acknowledged as among the areas hit by the disease that is fatal to hogs but harmless to humans.

Recently, the Quezon City government has culled 146 pigs at Barangay Bagong Silangan after 11 hogs in the area tested positive for the African swine fever virus.

Confiscated Meat

Around 340 kilos of confiscated hog meats were confiscated at the Fariñas Trans in the morning of September 20, 2019.

Ms. Rapatan said that these meat products had no proper documents and was shipped from Manila to Ilocos Norte.

“Sa laeng naduktalan dagitoy a karnet baboy itay agi-diskarga dan nga adda naburayrayan isu a nagtawag da a dagus ta DA province ken datayo tapnu makita a nalaing dagitoy a karne ket awan papeles na. Ngarud inaplayan mi iti disinfectant ket maikali amin dagitoy,” Ms. Rapatan said further.