ILOILO – The town of Oton where the province’s and Western Visayas’ first confirmed African Swine Fever (ASF) cases were logged has been declared a “red zone”.
This means all live pigs, pork, pork products (fresh/frozen pork products and uncooked processed pork products, except cooked and canned processed pork products), and swine genetic materials from Oton shall not be moved out to other local government units (LGUs).
The red zone status of Oton took effect yesterday until Oct. 27, or a total of 10 days as stipulated in Executive Order (EO) No. 460 issued by Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. It mandates quarantine procedures and ASF prevention and control measures.
“We will have to extend if necessary,” said Defensor.
Based on Department of Agriculture (DA) Administrative Order 02-2020, on the different colored zones for each municipality/city, red (infected) zone includes municipalities or cities with confirmed outbreaks of confirmed ASF cases.
A confirmed outbreak is defined as having ASF detected in domestic and/or wild pigs in affected farms (backyard, semi-commercial or commercial) in one barangay and spreading to other barangays of the same municipality occurring within 15 days.
The zone color around the red (infected) zone may reach or expand across the boundary of the adjacent city or municipality.
Defensor also confirmed yesterday that the samples from a hog farm in Barangay Bita Norte, Oton that were sent to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI)-Animal Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory in Manila tested positive for the ASF virus based on the confirmatory test using real time polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR).
For the period of 10 days, the governor said, intensified monitoring and surveillance as well as test and destroy operation with the help of DA-BAI, LGUs and Philippine National Police shall also be conducted in other parts of the province.
Only hogs that will be tested positive for ASF within the containment or red zone area will be depopulated.
Under the aforementioned DA administrative order, hogs can still be moved out from the barangays not covered under red zone but will be within Oton only provided that backyard or commercial hog farmers have secured veterinary certificate.
Last week, a total of 305 hog heads from the infected hog farm alone were depopulated by burning and burying.
Aside from this, 69 more from five additional backyard farms within the 0.5-kilometer radius from the infected farm were depopulated as of Oct. 15.
Defensor noted that there were resistance on the part of some affected hog farmers in the depopulation effort of the local ASF task force but this has been worked out though within 24 hours.
Investigation and validation are still ongoing as to the origin or how the ASF sneaked through the province despite strict hog ban and border restrictions.
The provincial government is also working out and gathering some help from concerned offices of the province and the DA for the affected hog farmers in Oton.
Meanwhile, areas under pink (buffer) zone includes municipalities or cities where ASF is not detected but demarcated immediately around the red zone when an area has been confirmed as an infected zone.
The pink (buffer) zone is aimed at preventing and managing spillover of cases from the red (infected) zone through risk mitigation measures such as biosecurity and surveillance.
On the other hand, for purposes of protecting and maintaining the ASF-free areas, the following free zones are defined according to risk:
* Yellow (surveillance) zone – includes municipalities or cities where ASF is not detected and adjacent with the pink (buffer) zone. These areas are considered to be high risk areas, following the risk criteria;
* Light green (protected) zone – includes municipalities or cities where ASF is not detected and are considered to be moderate risk areas following the risk criteria; and
* Dark green (free) zone – includes municipalities and cities where ASF is not detected and are considered of low risk following the risk criteria.
In the case of Iloilo, the towns surrounding Oton such as Tigbauan, San Miguel, Pavia, and Iloilo City are considered pink zones; Guimbal, Igbaras, Tubungan, Leon, Alimodian, Cabatuan, Santa Barbara, and Leganes are under yellow zone; Miag-ao, Maasin, Janiuay, Mina, New Lucena, and Zarraga are light green zones, while the rest of towns in the province are green zones./PN