Veterinary personnel here are pushing for the establishment of permanent border control facilities for livestock and other animals to further strengthen the area’s biosecurity measures.
Dr. Antonio Ephrem Marin, head of the City Veterinary Office (CVO), said on Friday they proposed the inclusion of the project as among the local government’s priorities to ensure the protection of the city’s thriving livestock industry.
He said the planned permanent border control points, which will have disinfection facilities, will be put up in all major highway entry points of the city.
“This will help maintain our status as animal disease-free, especially from the African swine fever (ASF), foot and mouth disease, and avian influenza,” he said in a report.
Marin said the move is part of their continuing efforts to prevent the entry of animal diseases, especially the dreaded ASF, from the neighboring regions.
He said the city, which is among the first localities in the area that crafted its ASF prevention strategy, remains under the “green zone” or free from the disease.
Such status enabled the city’s hog producers to sustain its shipments to Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR) and other major markets, he said.
From January to June this year, he said a total of 151,923 hogs or an average of over 25,000 heads a month were shipped out from the area.
Marin said 48 percent of the shipments were delivered to NCR, 32 percent to Region 3 or the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, and Tarlac, and 20 percent to Region 4-A or Calabarzon.
The city’s ASF prevention task force, which is supervised by the CVO, currently maintains seven makeshift quarantine checkpoints in the city’s high entry points that are operating 24/7 or 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The official said the checkpoints, which have an operating budget of PHP6.6 million, are manned by 79 contract-of-service personnel.
During the first half of the year, the task force confiscated some 1,056 kilos of pork; 4,537.55 kilos of processed pork products such as chorizo, tocino, and longganisa; 41 live hogs; and, 656 kilos of lechon and cooked pork.
Marin said the seized products, which were immediately destroyed, came from areas with confirmed ASF cases such as the Davao region, northern Mindanao, and Metro Manila.
He said the checkpoints inspected and disinfected during the period some 14,566 meat vans, 645 delivery trucks, and 25,521 returning empty trucks.
Source: Philippines News Agency
