The provincial government of Negros Occidental through the Provincial Veterinary Office will recognize individuals and organizations who played a vital role in keeping the province free from African Swine Fever (ASF) at the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City on Monday, July 26.
They will receive Plaques of Commendation in commemoration of the two-year accomplishment of the Provincial ASF Task Force since its creation on July 26, 2019.
“As of today, Negros Occidental has maintained its ASF-Free status despite the continuous spread of this disease in the nearby provinces in Visayas and Mindanao,” Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena said.
Following the outbreak of the ASF in July 2019, the provincial government immediately created a task force that resulted in the deployment of permanent personnel, as well as additional casuals and job order individuals, at all ports of entry in the province.
The checkpoints from September 2019 to June 2021 led to the confiscation of 22,428 kilograms of pork products worth P8.634 million, Decena said.
The ASF outbreak has spread to 12 regions in the country – 46 provinces and 493 localities nationwide – that has caused the loss of over three million pigs.
“To this date, the Provincial ASF Task Force is in its continuous enforcement of all sorts of preventive measures to safeguard the territorial jurisdiction of the province of Negros Occidental against the introduction of the ASF, primarily to protect the multi-billion peso swine industry of the province against the devastating effects of an ASF outbreak,” Decena said.
The measures being implemented to prevent the entry of ASF in the province include strengthening veterinary quarantine measures at all seaports and airports of the province, and the mobilization of paravets, LGU veterinarians/livestock technicians, and district veterinarians/field unit heads and personnel of the Provincial Veterinary District Field Units to intensify animal disease surveillance, he added.*