The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) advises consumers to ensure the meat they purchase in wet markets in Metro Manila were slaughtered free from the African swine fever (ASF).

This can be done by asking vendors to present the certificate issued by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS), Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said in a statement.

“We… advise the consumers who shop in wet markets to ask vendors to present their NMIS certificates, issued everyday by NMIS. These certificates are proof that these pork products have been tested and found free of ASF,” Lopez said.

The ASF virus causes hemorrhagic fever that almost always kills pigs, but is not known to impact humans. Outbreaks of the ASF have been recorded in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mongolia, North Korea, Laos, Myanmar and recently South Korea and the Philippines.

The government, after confirming the presence of ASF in seven areas in Rizal and Bulacan earlier this month, has been guaranteeing the safety of pork consumption in a bid to minimize the blow sent by ASF fears on the country’s P260-billion swine industry.

The trade agency said it monitored the price of pork products in several shops on Thursday and found that prevailing prices are still between P200 to P220 per kilo.

But he acknowledged “vendors say that public fear of the ASF is affecting pork demand.”

Among the shops he monitored with the Department of Agriculture and the National Food Authority were Farmers Market, Mega Q Mart and Kamuning Public Market.

Meanwhile, pork meat brands in supermarkets and groceries with certification from the Food and Drug Administration are produced by member-companies of the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc., and only use raw materials certified by the NMIS’ Veterinary Quarantine Certification.