This corroborates the claim of former Cebu City veterinarian Dr. Alice Utlang Tuesday that ASF was already in Cebu nearly four months before the Cebu Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) announced for the first time the detection of ASF in the province in Carcar City.
The barangay official, who requested anonymity, said it started with a report of hogs contracting an illness in the last week of October 2022.
The official told SunStar Cebu that a technician from a feed supplier for a certain pig farm reported on the pigs contracting an illness to the Department of Agriculture in Central Visayas (DA 7), where samples from the hogs were immediately sent for testing.
Last April 4, Utlang told SunStar Cebu that the first recorded ASF detection in Cebu province was in Barangay Vito in Minglanilla on Nov. 16, 2022.
Yet, the Cebu Provincial Veterinary Office led by Dr. Mary Rose Vincoy announced only last March 6, the first ASF detection in the province as having occurred in Carcar City last March 1.
The Vito barangay official said that right after they received the report from the DA on the ASF detection, all live hogs were immediately culled and disposed of accordingly from their barangay, including the adjacent barangays.
The municipal government also put up checkpoints in the barangay’s entry and exit points to control the movement of pigs from other localities.
The barangay official said representatives from the Provincial Government visited their barangay and conducted seminars and orientation. The hog owners were taught the guidelines on handling the detection with emphasis on avoiding moving their swine outside the barangay.
The municipal government also assisted the barangay in putting up strict biosecurity to prevent the spread of the virus that causes ASF.
The official said that until now, there are no live hogs left or raised in their barangay.
Last Tuesday, Utlang told SunStar Cebu that following the Nov. 16 detection of ASF in Minglanilla, ASF was then detected this year in pig farms in Talisay City and Cebu City in January, and then in Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City, Cordova, Carcar City, San Fernando and Liloan in February.
In a post she made this week in the comments section of the Facebook page of Sugbo News, the news portal of the Cebu Provincial Government, Utlang accused PVO head Vincoy of not telling the truth about the ASF situation in Cebu, which would have made it difficult for Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to address the matter.
“Ok gyud unta ug ang imong Pro Vet who happens to be my former student nag sulti sa tinuod nga nahitabog ug ni educate gyud nimo sa insakto. In fact, wa man gani siya ni sulti nga ang 1st case is in Vito Minglanilla Nov. 16, 2022 pa,” Utlang wrote, addressing the governor.
(It would have been okay if your provincial veterinarian who happens to be my former student had told the truth about what happened and educated you on it. In fact, she did not even say that the first case was in Vito, Minglanilla on Nov. 16, 2022 yet.)
Utlang asked what Vincoy had done to control the spread of ASF.
“Ang panguta(na) my Idol Governor what she did pag control sa ASF spread? Ug na control ba niya? Kay ug ga buhat pa siya ug insakto di na mo abot sa Carcar. Ang case sa Carcar was imported from Minglanilla. I don’t blame you my Idol governor kay wa ka siguro na brief ug na sultihi sa tinuod,” Utlang wrote in her post.
(The question, my Idol Governor, is what did Vincoy do to control the ASF spread? And was she able to control it? Because if she had done the right thing, ASF would not have reached Carcar. The Carcar case was imported from Minglanilla. I don’t blame you, my governor, because you were probably not briefed on the real situation.)
In her post, Utlang called ASF a “reportable animal disease,” and said “concealing the disease is tantamount to economic sabotage.”
Replying to a netizen’s comment on her post, Utlang said the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and the PVO were aware of the cases, but the DA and BAI gave Vincoy the opportunity to be the one to inform the authorities like the governor, mayors, barangay captains and the quick response team, about the cases.
Vincoy did not respond to calls from SunStar Cebu for comment on Utlang’s allegations.
Lapu-Lapu City
In Lapu-Lapu City, which is not under the jurisdiction of the Cebu Provincial Government, the City Veterinary Office said it had no idea that ASF had been detected in the city prior to Carcar City.
City Veterinarian Dr. Janice Togonon told SunStar Cebu Wednesday that they learned about the detection of ASF in Lapu-Lapu City only last March 27.
Last March 30, the BAI posted on its Facebook page its ASF Zoning update for March 27, 2023 indicating that 12 Cebu towns and cities were under the red (infected) zone: the cities of Bogo, Carcar, Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Talisay, and the towns of Cordova, Liloan, Minglanilla, San Fernando, Sibonga and Tuburan.
Togonon said it is possible that ASF was found among the three blood samples of live hogs that the City Veterinary Office submitted to the BAI on the second week of February following reports that some live hogs had gotten sick.
She said they got one blood sample each from Barangays Bankal, Gun-ob and Marigondon.
But Togonon said they had conducted information dissemination and seminars to prevent the spread of ASF since 2019 and while waiting for the results of the blood samples they submitted to the BAI.
Togonon noted that Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Chan had issued an executive order in 2019 yet, banning the entry of live hogs from Luzon, where the first ASF cases in the country were detected.
She said they strictly prohibited the entry of pigs with no legal documents to ensure that only healthy ones can enter the city.
Togonon said there is nothing to cull in Lapu-Lapu considering its low swine population, as the city’s raisers typically raise hogs only for slaughter for fiesta celebrations.
Carcar compensation
In Carcar City, hog owners whose swine were culled in March due to the BAI protocol in preventing the spread of ASF will receive financial assistance from the City Government after the Holy Week.
Carcar City Mayor Mario Patricio Barcenas told SunStar Cebu on Wednesday that around 50 backyard hog raisers from Barangay Can-asujan will receive financial assistance of from P7,000 per pig or higher, depending on the size of the swine that was culled.
But the city government limits the compensation to 20 hogs per owner or else they will not be considered backyard hog raisers anymore.
According to the BAI’s protocol, all live swine within the 500-meter radius of the infected area or farms have to be culled to prevent the spread of ASF.
Last March 13, Governor Garcia suspended the culling operation of pigs in Carcar City, particularly of more than 500 hogs that had been scheduled to be culled.
Earlier, 141 hogs had already been culled in Barangay Can-asujan, which Barcenas said included piglets and sows or mother pigs.
Barcenas said they no longer received reports of ASF in the city, which he attributed to the biosecurity measures put in place last month.
He assured his constituents that ASF has been contained in the city but strict biosecurity remains.
Barcenas also plans to establish a pig pen near the city’s slaughterhouse, which will house hogs bought outside the city intended for slaughter. This will enable them to monitor the healthy pigs that came from the other LGUs and isolate them from the sick ones.
ASF in Minglanilla
Barcenas admitted that the source of the virus that caused ASF in the town was no longer traceable.
The samples from the Carcar City slaughterhouse that tested positive for ASF last March 1 had come from hogs that had been mixed with hogs from Negros Oriental. So it was first believed that the virus came from Negros, but Barcenas could no longer confirm it.
As for Minglanilla being the first LGU in Cebu with ASF, Barcenas said he had heard the rumor that pigs from that municipality that had been brought to Carcar had caused the infection in his city. However, he said this was not confirmed. Nor could he confirm that ASF had been detected in Minglanilla.
