ASF virus moves to other parts of the Philippines
Another province in the Philippines is reporting an ASF outbreak as blood samples taken from pigs in Davao Occidental have been confirmed as positive for African swine fever, reports Reuters. Agriculture Secretary William Dar has ordered regional department officials to restrict animal movement in the southern islands of the country as the disease keeps spreading.
The Philippines reported the first ASF outbreak in September 2019 and by now only two provinces have been affected, Central Luzon and Calabarzon.
Authorities believe that pork smuggled from China is behind the outbreaks. In December, a shipment declared as “Peking Duck” was found to contain infected pork products from China. On the other hand, an unofficial market report shared on LinkedIn by different representatives of the industry shows a different picture for the Filipino pork sector.
"Today there are farmers who keep their pigs in positive farms without considering risks of spreading the virus. They do not report to the authorities as the government has no budget for compensation. There is a compensation scheme only for backyard farmers (less than 20 heads in total) and this is also not executed properly. So, commercial farms who are affected or are within 1km radius of infected farms and are supposed to depopulate have to suffer total loss," says the report.
The Filipino backyard pig population is believed to be 8.2 million head and haulers are representing the main channel of distribution for pig meat in the domestic market. In some cases, these haulers and their trucks also help the virus to spread. As a general conclusion, "the market situation is not expected to improve before the end of the first quarter (and that’s looking at the bright side). ASF keeps spreading in the North Luzon area and besides backyard farms, some big players are also affected."
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