According to the Provincial Veterinary’s Office (PVO), the total swine population in the Province of Cebu is close to half a million heads — or 442,422 hogs.
Of the figure, 62% — or 272,109 — come from backyard hog raisers, while the remaining 38% (or 167,313 hogs) are from commercial farms.
And yet, during the media briefing at the Capitol on Monday, April 24, Gov. Gwen Garcia said there has been no massive deaths reported in Cebu’s hog population to solidly back up the Bureau of Animal Industry’s (BAI) claim of an ASF outbreak in the province, a claim the agency made in March last month.
The governor backed her statement by showing data from the PVO that says that as of this Monday, only 59 hogs in the entire province have been detected to show symptoms of the ASF or cholera disease.
Of the figure, however, only 33 died while 26 still lives.
If anything, the governor said, the figures really show that there might be other diseases besides ASF in Cebu, as demonstrated by the number of supposed survivors; since the ASF poses a 100% mortality rate.
She said this could just be a simple case of cholera, and yet BAI had ordered an immediate culling of over 140 hogs in two barangays in Carcar City before Capitol intervened and banned BAI’s sweeping culling policy.
She said hog raisers successfully contained the disease by following her directive of immediately isolating those that show symptoms as well as the banning swill feeding, as ASF is transmissible through body-to-body contact as well as ingestion of infected material.
The governor also lamented the BAI’s ASF color-coding classification for LGUs which make the mobility of hogs difficult, saying that “it limits the market” and that “it is an economic blow to our hog industry”.
“Ka-timing no? The declared red zones and pink zones — that’s where the majority of our huge hog farms are located. Again if they can no longer sell, what does that create? Kulang, a pork shortage. And if there is pork shortage, what is the remedy? Pork importation. And who signs the permit? BAI,” the governor said.
To help LGUs combat the hog cholera, the governor said the Capitol has procured and distributed to the LGUs cholera vaccines for the swine population of their backyard hog raisers. She said commercial farms also have their own vaccination drives against hog cholera.
The governor also shot down insinuations on social media that the Capitol’s beef would ultimately redound to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who also sits as concurrent Secretary of the Department of Agriculture. The BAI is an attached agency of the DA.
She said only the “misinformed” would make such comments, especially since DA regional executive director Angel Enriquez has already manifested support to the Capitol’s ASF response and lobbied for review of policies implemented by the BAI for the past three years now.
“Let us not connect the BAI with the President. The President is doing his very best for the country,” Gov. Garcia said.
“We don’t have an issue with the President. We continue to support all of his programs. In fact, we are trying our very best now. At least over here in the Province of Cebu, there will be harmony of efforts and performance between national government agencies and the Province of Cebu so that we can achieve optimum results. And optimum results redound to the benefit not just for the Province of Cebu but the benefit of the national government as well,” she added. | Ioannss P. Arong