Agri chief slams ‘misleading’ ASF report

Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William Dar on Thursday called “grossly misleading, malicious and irresponsible” a newspaper report that bulk of the African Swine Fever (ASF) deaths recorded globally is from the Philippines.

Dar was referring to the 19 September Inquirer report saying that the 8,000 hogs that died in the Philippines from 30 August to 12 September accounted for the bulk of the 8,200 hogs lost in all of Asia due to ASF and the 10,000 lost worldwide from the same disease during the two-week period.

Dar, however, said that as per the World Health Organization for Animal Health global deaths caused by ASF have reached 2,530,969 since it was first recorded in Kenya in 1921 against the 7,416 cases recorded in the Philippines as of end-August.

Dar added that the official figures recorded in the Philippines translate to merely 0.0029 percent or three deaths for every 1,000 pigs.

“These cases represent a minuscule six deaths for every 10,000 pigs of the country’s total swine population, which stood at 12.7 million as of July 2019, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority,” Dar said.

The Philippines is the eighth-biggest pork producer in the world by volume.

The DA chief said the misleading story causes panic among pork consumers and the general public.

He also said it could further destroy the country’s P260-billion swine industry that provides income and livelihood for millions of Filipino families, since small backyard raisers comprise two-thirds of the country’s swine industry.

Dar, meanwhile, assures that the DA and other partner government agencies and the private sector are doing their utmost to effectively manage, control, and contain the threat of ASF to protect the industry and to ensure the health of consumers.

“We continue to remind that local pork, provided NMIS-certified, is safe to eat,” Dar said.

The agriculture chief maintains that while the DA has already disinfected the ground zero in Bulacan and Rizal provinces, it continues to deploy financial assistance to affected hog raisers.

Further, the DA chief said they will continue to reinforce rigorous import policies, early detection and strict biosecurity measures to heighten ASF awareness at the national level.

ASF is a highly contagious hemorrhagic disease of pigs caused by the DNA virus of the Asfarviridae family.

The said virus causes loss of appetite, high fever, hemorrhage and death in two to 10 days.