SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique—Starting Tuesday, backyard hog slaughter is prohibited in San Jose de Buenavista to prevent the spread of African swine fever (ASF).
Executive Order 42, issued by Mayor Elmer Untaran on June 27, 2023, states that hogs will only be slaughtered at the municipal abattoir in Barangay San Pedro and will require a health certificate from the barangay where they were raised.
On June 23, ASF was confirmed in a hog farm in Barangay Bugarot, the provincial capital.
Dr. Marco Rafael Ardamil, chief of the Public Health Division at the Antique Provincial Veterinary Office, said swine slaughter and boar circulation were considered “super spreaders” of ASF.
In Hamtic, where index cases have been recorded, hogs were slaughtered in backyards and sold to ambulant vendors since no slaughterhouses existed.
As a result of the absence of a slaughterhouse in Hamtic, ASF spread rapidly.
Ardamil said the barangay captain must also issue a certification to ensure that hogs do not show disease symptoms.
Aside from banning backyard slaughter, the EO has temporarily suspended the “circulation of boars for insemination purposes” until the town becomes zero-ASF.
As of June 26, the San Jose de Buenavista municipal agriculture office reported 44 fatalities in Barangays Bugarot, Maybato Sur, Maybato North, and Bariri.
It appears that only Bugarot has confirmed ASF cases. At the same time, the Regional Animal Disease Diagnostic Center of the Department of Agriculture has not released the results of samples taken from the other three barangays.
In the meantime, Ardamil said they verbally agreed with the Iloilo City Veterinarian to transport healthy hogs to the regional capital, where pork is in high demand.
‘Iloilo City is already a red zone or has ASF cases since last year that it could accept for trading hogs in Antique,’ he said.
On June 26, Hamtic’s Municipal Agriculture Office reported 2,335 hog deaths in 28 barangays with an estimated damage of PHP22,682,500./ PNA
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