Feed millers losing 50 percent of sales due to ASF

Various livestock feed millers are already feeling the wrath of African Swine Fever as they have already lost more than half of their revenue because pigs in CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) continue to die because of the infestation of the dreaded swine virus.

“We are offering ourselves to help to make the inoculation process swifter, as hogs continue to deplete in CALABARZON due to ASF. Not only that, feed millers are losing 50 percent of their revenues because of the depletion of pigs in the farm and the backyards,” said Batangas-based Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative CEO Rico Geron, who has 73,000 farmers, half of whom are involved in backyard hog raising.

He added that the livelihoods of Batanguenos are now at stake.

“For the part of the consumers, we are anticipating that pork meat prices will increase in the coming weeks toward the Holiday Season if the rolling out of the ASF vaccine inoculation process will not be done faster. We ask the DA and the President to tap us and receive our offered help in this process,” he said in a press conference in Manila on Tuesday.

For her part, Alice Maraan, general manager of the 48-year-old Cavite Farmers Feedmilling and Marketing Cooperative, lamented that their group is struggling to source vaccines for ASF.

“If our members who are into backyard hog-raising are affected by the ASF, feed millers also suffer. What we want is for the government to double-time the vaccination process,” Maraan said.

Meanwhile, the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines, Inc. representative Fritz Kenneth Chua, who also owns a livestock farm in Quezon, questioned the delays in the inoculation process.

“The vaccine is readily available and yet the rollout is so sluggish. What is happening?” he asked.

AGAP Partylist Representative Nick Briones, hit the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for delyaing the full rollout of the vaccine.

“They have so many tests to do. The problem is already here, so why are they not acting fast?  Lives of our hogs and swine are at stake here, as well as the livelihood of our industry,” he said.

In a Senate hearing last week, the FDA underscored the need for the vaccines to undergo clinical testing to obtain a Certificate of Product Registration (CPR), and ensure their safety and efficacy.

Dr. Samuel Zacate, Director General of FDA, four ASF vaccines are currently undergoing local clinical trials.

Agriculture Secretary Francis Tiu Laurel Jr. stated that the DA is working to expedite approval of the vaccines, which could take six months “in the best-case scenario”.

“Due to the urgency of the situation, we are consulting with vets and other experts in this field on how to shorten the process of approval and trials. So, my best case [estimate] is six months from now,” Tiu Laurel, Jr. said.

As of 6 September, pigs from 14 regions, 31 provinces, 109 municipalities, and 472 barangays have been hit by ASF, according to records from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), as quoted by AGAP Partylist.

To date, only the AVAC ASF Live vaccine from Vietnam has been approved by the FDA for a limited government-controlled rollout of 10,000 doses allocated in Batangas.

However, Tiu Laurel Jr. last 9 September announced that the government-controlled vaccination against African swine fever (ASF) would expand to the Visayas and Mindanao, casting a wider net to include La Union, Quezon, Mindoro, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Cebu as part of the BAI’s controlled testing of the initial 150,000 doses imported from Vietnam.