New ASF cases in Iloilo town cause cross-border cordon

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

Another Iloilo province town has confirmed its first cases of the African Swine Fever (ASF), and the 500-meter cordon includes one barangay in an adjacent town.

Iloilo Provincial Veterinary Office (IPVO) chief Darel Tabuada first confirmed the ASF case to Super Radyo Iloilo at Brgy. Badiang in New Lucena town on Friday evening.

Tabuada told Daily Guardian on Saturday that there were two villages involved, Badiang and Guinobatan.

There were no commercial farms in these areas, and he confirmed that all affected hog farms in the area were backyard raisers.

The samples were collected from 6 live hogs that got sick and were previously exposed to other sick hogs in Badiang, which had already been depopulated and properly buried.

“We collected 2 samples [from Badiang] on November 15, both of which turned out positive when the result came out on November 16. We recollected [samples] on November 18 because the 500-meter radius extended to another barangay, which is Guinobatan, and out of 4 samples we submitted for a lab test, 1 turned out to be positive,” Tabuada explained.

The 500-meter radius from Brgy. Badiang extends to an unnamed barangay in neighboring Mina town, and the provincial veterinarian said the Mina local government unit (LGU) has been apprised of the situation.

Border controls have been placed prior to the confirmed ASF cases, but he said that these were strengthened, and now included the Mina town barangay.

Samples from affected farms have also been collected, but the IPVO doesn’t expect this to amass a greater number of ASF cases given that all of these were only from backyard farms.

More than 5 live hogs have also been depopulated according to Tabuada, and he added that they have been in the process of providing resources to the New Lucena LGU for their local depopulation strategies.

If the IPVO and the LGU successfully depopulate live hogs within the 500-meter radius without new infections spilling over outside of it, then there would be no need to declare the town as a Red Zone.

Daily Guardian has also reached out to New Lucena mayor Liecel Seville for further information as to local efforts, but she has yet to respond as of this writing.

New Lucena is the 6^th town confirmed to be hit by ASF, after Santa Barbara, Alimodian, Leganes, San Miguel, and Oton, where the first cases in the province were confirmed.

Iloilo province has had 366 total ASF cases as of November 18, with 206 in Oton, 42 in San Miguel, 10 in Leganes, 3 each in Alimodian and New Lucena, and 2 in Santa Barbara. Depopulated hogs are at 1,504 from 168 farmers affected.

There are also a total of 45 barangays affected, including 31 in Oton, 6 in San Miguel, 4 in Leganes, 2 in New Lucena, and 1 each in Alimodian and Santa Barbara.