Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella is interviewed by the Cebu media about the African Swine Fever. CDN Digital photo | Delta Dyrecka Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines– Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella instructed the city’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries (DVMF) to form a task group that will work on formulating mitigation measures that can help prevent the entry of African Swine Fever (ASF) here.
The mayor asked Doctor Jennifer Laurente, the head of the DVMF, to lead and gather the Cebu City Health, the City Agriculture Department (CAD), and City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) to prepare for any possible entry of the virus in the city.
Read: Swine fever fears prompt strict checks on pig farms, pork
Labella wanted a close monitoring of the ASF, especially since he said the pork meat industry in Cebu City is thriving. Cebu is home to the world-famous inasal or lechon (roasted suckling pig).
“[We have to] see to it that this menace of a virus will not enter the city,” Labella said in an interview on Thursday, August 22, 2019, at the Cebu City Hall.
ASF, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), is a highly contagious hemorrhagic disease of pigs that causes high fever, loss of appetite, haemorrhages in the skin, and internal organs, and death to the affected pigs.
The virus does not pose any risk to humans. However, humans who consume affected meat are capable of infecting swine through various means, such as when human waste infects the water system, then infecting agricultural lands, until finally reaching the pigs.
Since there are no treatments and vaccination for ASF, its entry to Cebu City will pose a threat to its P2-billion piggery industry.
Laurente said that Cebu City has been implementing a “no veterinary health certificate, no slaughter” policy on hog farms to ensure that no infected meat can get into the market.
Meat products coming from Luzon will be closely monitored and canned meat with no supporting documents will not be allowed to be distributed in Cebu City, she added.
Laurente said that on Friday, August 23, 2019, she will be calling to a meeting the city’s meat inspectors to discuss how to identify ASF-infected meat.
The DVMF is still coordinating with CAD to identify the number of hog raisers in the city.
Laurente said the city has a sizeable number of hog raisers, especially in the mountain barangays, and these are the ones who supply pork meat to the public markets.
She said the DVMF is now conducting information campaign on ASF among the hog farmers who have been informed that their hogs should not be fed with leftovers as this can be a carrier of ASF infection.
She urged the hog farmers and consumers to help the government watch out for the ASF virus by making sure they purchase local meat and avoid meat from Luzon and those imported from other countries. /bmjo