The Cebu City Hall now moves forward and focuses on its information campaign and implementation of additional protocols to protect the hog industry in the city.
This was Cebu City Veterinarian Jessica Maribojoc’s response Wednesday, April 5, 2023, to the release by former Cebu City veterinarian Alice Utlang of information in a Facebook post on Monday that ASF cases had already been detected in Barangays Tisa, Budlaan and Bulacao in the city last January and February, ahead of the declaration of the Cebu Provincial Veterinary Office that ASF had been detected in Carcar City, believed by the public then to be the first area of infection in the whole Cebu.
Maribojoc explained that in the case of Barangays Tisa and Budlaan, there were reported deaths of pigs, prompting the City’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries to monitor the remaining pigs; however, the pigs died even before the test results came out.
Maribojoc said the pig pens had no neighboring pig pens within 500 meters, the reason the disease was contained.
Maribojoc said they advised the affected hog raisers not to raise pigs for six months and to conduct disinfection on the pig pens for three straight months.
She also clarified that the ASF case in Barangay Bulacao was detected only on March 8, and not Jan. 26 as Utlang said.
Maribojoc said even if there were detected ASF cases in Cebu City, only the DA’s Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) could declare this.
“(In Cebu City), it was controlled within 15 days, and only DA-BAI can declare the status of zoning. (That’s why) Cebu City was still (considered in the) green (zone that time),” said Maribojoc.
Under the DA’s National Zoning and Movement Plan for the Prevention and Control of ASF, the red (infected) zone refers to cities and towns with confirmed ASF outbreaks, while the rest of the colored zones refer to local government units (LGUs) with no ASF, with the dark green (free) zone representing the area with the least risk for ASF transmission.
Maribojoc said an outbreak would only be declared if based on the surveillance result, the case is not controlled within 15 days and there is transmission in more than one barangay, like what happened in Carcar City where more than one barangay was affected.
Predatory
Maribojoc is also not keen on announcing publicly the barangays under surveillance or being closely monitored. She said this is to prevent “predatory traders” from exploiting backyard breeders.
She said there were reported incidents of some traders buying hogs from the backyard breeders for much lower prices.
“Once areas where there are detected cases or placed under surveillace are announced, some predators would go to these areas and buy the pigs of backyard breeders,” she said in a mix of English and Cebuano.
Such instances would not only affect the investment of the backyard breeders, but also result in ASF spreading more, she said.
City Hall is now down to its last 10 upland barangays for its information campaign focusing on biosecurity.
“Since ASF is already present, we will just have to move forward and in Cebu City, we see the info campaign as a very helpful tool for our backyard breeders. They are enlightened on the do’s and don’ts in raising pigs,” she said.
Since the BAI’s official announcement of the presence of ASF in Cebu City last March 20, there have been 15 pigs culled.
Aside from border control and culling, Cebu City Hall will also implement additional measures, such as requiring backyard breeders to comply with the hogs’ registration certificate which is needed when they sell or slaughter the hogs.
City Agriculture Department (CAD) head Joelito Baclayon, whose office is in charge of the registration, said the certificate allows City Hall to determine who raised or where the hogs originated.
Based on CAD records as of April 5, the population of hogs in Cebu City is 12,000 and there are around 900 hog raisers.
