Swine flu hits Pampanga; checkpoints tightened

Around 3,000 pigs were culled in the town of San Simon as the Pampanga province recorded its first infection of the dreaded African swine fever (ASF).

San Simon Mayor Abundio Punsalan Jr. immediately ordered the ban on movement of hogs inside the municipality as San Simon becomes the first town in the province of Pampanga that was hit by the ASF. Two other towns, Apalit and Candaba, are also said to have been affected.

“Some hog raisers reported that their pigs died due to the virus, so I already ordered the culling of the rest to immediately contain the virus,” Punsalan said.

Punsalan said that the town has incurred P15 million in losses due to the culling of these infected animals, but the mayor said that the farmers will get assistance from the local government and the Department of Agriculture (DA).

“We will be extending assistance to our affected hog raisers so they can recover from their losses. They will also definitely be receiving aid from the DA,” he said.

The town has around 70 hog raisers who are mostly from the villages of Concepcion and San Pedro, wherein both commercial and backyard hog raisers have been impacted by the outbreak.

Meanwhile, the Northern Samar task force against ASF stepped up its campaign to prevent the possible entry of the hog disease as more pork and hog products are being intercepted in ports, bus terminals and in public transports.

On Friday, over 1,000 kilos of assorted meat products were intercepted in two separate checkpoints in this province.

At least 651 kilos of ground pork and 97 kilos of pork meat purportedly coming from the Netherlands and from Quezon City were seized in Barangay Jubasan in Allen town Northern Samar as it was being transported to Tacloban City.

In the town of Lope de Vega, also in Northern Samar, the local task force against ASF led by municipal agriculture officer Dr. Myra Lim also confiscated 320 kilograms of longganisa at the land animal quarantine checkpoint due to lack of proper documents also on Friday.