Photo courtesy of PTV.
QUEZON CITY (PIA) — The government is looking to complete the procurement of 600,000 doses of vaccine against African swine fever (ASF) within this year to alleviate the plight of hog raisers and rebuild the country’s pork industry.
In a Palace press briefing on Tuesday, September 24, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel said inoculation for the initial 10,000 doses of ASF vaccination is set to be finished this month, with an additional 450,000 doses expected to be delivered later this year.
“The first 10,000 doses… the vaccination will be finished by the end of the month. The schedule for the award for the next 450,000 doses is on October 10, of which we will take delivery of 150,000 doses by then,” Tiu-Laurel said.
“But we hope to complete the procurement of 600,000 doses by the end of December this year,” he added.
Tiu-Laurel said this is in response to the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to the DA to fast-track the rollout of the vaccines to curb the further spread of the animal disease.
The Philippines logged its first confirmed cases of ASF in July 2019 in Rizal province. The virus has since spread to other provinces, including Batangas, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, and Cavite.
The spread of the virus resulted in the culling of 300,000 pigs and a decline in the growth rate of pork production.
The outbreak significantly affected the country’s pork industry and led to higher pork prices, impacting consumers, especially the vulnerable sectors.
The DA launched earlier its first vaccination among 41 healthy and ASF-negative hogs in small backyard farms in Lobo town in Batangas, which has been identified as ground zero of the largest ASF outbreak since the monsoon season began.
The inoculation program will be expanded to reach other areas in Visayas and Mindanao, the department said.
According to Tiu-Laurel, the ASF vaccination will help rebuild investor confidence in the Philippines’ hog industry.
He added, “Hopefully everything will be implemented on schedule. Sana by next year, puro repopulating nalang tayo at tuluy-tuloy na ang paglaki at pagbalik ng population ng ating mga baboy to above 14 million heads. Ngayon nasa around 7.5 million heads lang eh ang baboy na estimate natin.”
(We’re hoping that by next year, we will just focus on repopulating, and the population of our pigs will continue to grow and return to above 14 million heads. Currently, we only have around 7.5 million heads, based on our estimate.) (PIA-DMD)
