The provincial government of Misamis Oriental ordered Thursday the temporary ban on the entry of pigs and various pork products from areas deemed by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) as having an African Swine Fever (ASF) infestation.

In his Executive Order 2019-13, Governor Yevgeny Vincente Emano ordered the creation of a task force that would oversee the implementation of the temporary ban.

The order came following reports of mass infection of hogs in the provinces of Rizal and Bulacan, as confirmed by Agriculture Secretary William Dar on Monday.

Emano said the temporary ban on the entry of pigs, pork products and pork by-products “coming from areas declared by BAI as affected with the virus” seeks to safeguard the province’s swine industry as well as to protect the general public from the ill effects of the ASF.

The ban, he said, will only be lifted “until such a time that a declaration is made by the [BAI] of the assurance of the safety in the swine industry.”

The ASF is a highly contagious and usually fatal viral disease of swine that is characterized by high fever, lesions, leukopenia or the abnormal low count of white blood cells, elevated pulse and respiration rate, and death within four to seven days after the onset of fever.

Emano also ordered local chief executives in the province to call on their constituents, especially backyard hog farmers, to avoid feeding their livestock with swill or food scraps “and to report promptly any unusual swine morbidities and mortalities in the area” to the local agriculture or veterinary offices.

The Philippine Veterinary Medical Association (PVMA) in Northern Mindanao has earlier warned that small-time pig growers that practice feeding swill are the most vulnerable to the virus due to this unsanitary method.

Dr. Katherine Mae Caterial, president of the PVMA in the region, has said that disinfection and biosecurity measures should be adopted to avoid ASF from spreading further.