The Provincial Veterinary Office has already been collecting blood samples of pigs in Negros Occidental for testing and the province still remains ASF free, Dr. Placeda Lemana, PVO officer-in-charge, assured Monday, October 24.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the Department of Agriculture (DA) Western Visayas office on Sunday, October 23, to test all pig breeding sites in the region to control the spread of the African Swine Fever (ASF) after cases were detected in Iloilo.
ASF is a highly contagious viral disease of pigs, whose mortality rate can reach 100 percent.
The DA has been conducting a nationwide surveillance against ASF and has been requiring the collection of blood samples from pigs for testing by the Animal Health and Welfare Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry, Lemana said.
She said blood samples of pigs in all commercial farms and backyard piggeries are being taken.
Lemana said 446 blood samples for testing from backyard piggeries from every local government unit in the province are required by the DA.
She said Cebu and Negros Oriental also remain ASF free.
Lemana said it is possible that ASF can also be transmitted to other pigs by mosquitoes who have bitten an infected one.
ASF is not a threat to human health and cannot be transmitted from pigs to humans, she added.*