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MANDAUE CITY, Philippines – The Mandaue City Veterinary Office is strictly inspecting pork and pork products before these are allowed entry into the city’s public and satellite markets.
Mandaue City Veterinarian Dr. Karen Merilles said that they are deploying veterinary meat inspectors at the city’s public market and satellite markets to check the pork as well as the required documents.
Merilles said though that only the Meat Inspection Certificate from the National Meat Inspection Services is needed for pork that should not come from the red (infected) zone and pink zones.
The city temporarily banned the entry of pork and pork products from Cebu localities that are under the red (infected) and pink zones based on their African Swine Fever classification.
Mandaue City is under the Free zone.
Merilles said that slaughterhouses located in the city were also reminded to thoroughly inspect the documents of their customers.
“Entry pa lang sa mga hogs were already screened, kung kinsay pwede ihawon or dili and yesterday, we sent back sa border nato mga hogs coming from sa ginadili nga zones,” said Merilles.
Aside from pork, they also include groceries in their monitoring, she said.
Moreover, the city veterinarian said that border controls will likely be implemented next week after their meeting and orientation with the police. This is on top of the inspection that had been conducted at the city’s ports since two years ago.
“Since Green (Free) zone pata, layo pa ta sa ground zero. A lot of border controls were already in place in other municipalities with regards to the movement and color coding,” she added. /rcg
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