Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has adapted Cebu Province’s extended ban on pork and poultry products. INQUIRER.NET FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City is adapting the province’s extension of the ban on pork and poultry products from areas affected by the African Swine Fever and the Avian Influenza (bird flu).
Mayor Michael Rama said that there is no need for him to issue his own directive or executive order as Cebu City will simply adapt the directives issued by Governor Gwendolyn Garcia.
For Rama, it is important that Cebu as One Island have the same policies regarding these types of bans because any port of entry, whether in the province or in the tricities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu, will affect the entire island.
The ultimate goal is to protect the multimillion industries of hogs and fowl on the island from being infected by the two diseases.
“Whatever is the direction of the province, the Tri-Cities, likewise, will have. Actually, the DVMF (Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries) is very much proactive and empowered. At this level of discipline, for sure, I’m pretty sure they are doing their job,” said Rama.
Dr. Jessic Maribojoc, the officer-in-charge of the DVMF, told CDN Digital that currently, they are implementing the policy of the province with regards to the areas included in the ASF and bird flu ban.
These include areas from Luzon, Mindanao, and Eastern Visayas where ASF has been reported and Luzon and Mindanao for bird flu.
Maribojoc said that they did not stop the monitoring of the entry of the banned pork and poultry products in the city’s seaports and continuously conducted inspections in stores as well, especially for ASF, the ban of which includes foreign imports.
“If the meat consumers decided to bring pork and poultry products here in the city they have to make sure that the origin should not be identified (by BAI) as positive countries. If coming from negative AI and ASF countries, they have to secure the proper documents,” said the city’s chief veterinarian.
In previous statements, the DVMF already explained how detrimental ASF and bird flu can be to the hog and fowl industry.
The entry of the disease to Cebu would cause an outbreak that would force raisers to cull infected animals, which will then result into a shortage and an increase in the prices of related products. /rcg
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