DA 7 Director Joel Elumba said there was no truth to the report that thousands of pigs died in one of the barangays in the southern town of Minglanilla.
“Wala ta ana (We don’t have that)… Kanang moabot 3,000 nga namatay, di gyud na mahitabo siguro (It probably will never happen that 3,000 pigs died). Kana nga kadako nga population wala na sa Barangay Cadulawan ug bisan pa sa tibuok Minglanilla (Barangay Cadulawan doesn’t have a pig population that big and neither does the entire town),” he said Monday, Feb. 27, 2023.
He said they continue to monitor pigs in Cebu Province.
“It’s true that we conducted surveillance. There were some reactors, so we had to conduct confirmation and verification within 15 days. Right now, the tests being conducted in our laboratory are ongoing,” Elumba said in Cebuano.
He said they took blood samples from some pigs and examined these, but they still have to conduct a confirmatory test.
In the meantime, he said they’ve requested more test kits so the Cebu Provincial Veterinary Office can conduct more tests.
Elumba explained that extreme weather is a contributing factor to why pigs, like people, get sick.
Similar to ASF
He said pigs usually contract hog cholera and what is called the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), which has similar symptoms to ASF.
“That’s why we asked for additional test kits because we are also testing for those two diseases (hog cholera and PRRS), which are very common during rainy weather,” he said in Cebuano.
The Bohol Chronicle had reported that Bohol Province was concerned about the report that 3,600 pigs believed to be infected with ASF died in Barangay Cadulawan in Minglanilla.
Meanwhile, the DA 7 official urged Cebuanos to immediately report sick pigs to the Provincial Veterinary Office or to veterinary offices in their respective towns and cities so the pigs can be examined.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia earlier ordered the One Cebu Inter-Agency Interdiction Task Force to tighten security in all ports of entry to protect the province’s P11 billion hog industry.
The DA 7 reiterated that Cebu remains ASF-free. (ANV / PJB)