BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
The value of pork products confiscated by the Provincial Veterinary Office in various areas in Negros Occidental in relation to their campaign against the African swine fever has reached nearly half-a-million pesos since January.
Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena, in his report to Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, said that since the start of the year, they had seized 907.73 kilograms of assorted pork products valued at P463,103 in ports, at the Bacolod-Silay Airport, and checkpoint areas.
Decena said that from August 5 to 12 alone, P15,822 worth of pork products were confiscated from hand-carried and checked-in baggage at the Bacolod-Silay Airport and in several markets in Bacolod and Sipalay cities.
From August 6 to 12, the quarantine team inspected 1,591 incoming vehicles and refrigerated container vans in different ports of entry in Negros Occidental, Decena said, adding that all products allowed to enter the province were properly checked and found to have complete documents.
He added that from August 8 to 12, some 1,261 hogs were shipped out of Negros occidental to different areas in Luzon and the Visayas, while livestock transport carriers were disinfected upon arrival in the province.
These activities are part of the measures against the entry of ASF to the province.
Negros Occidental, one of the top producers of pork products in the country, has 15,000 backyard hog raisers and has a hog population of 369,455, as of April.*