By Zaldy Comanda
BAGUIO CITY – The City Veterinary and Agriculture Office (CVAO) assured residents that there is a stable supply of pork in the city amidst the reported African Swine Fever (ASF) in some backyard and commercial piggery farms in three neighboring towns of Benguet over the past several weeks.
Assistant City Veterinarian Dr. Silardo Bested, said local quarantine inspectors remain vigilant in monitoring the entry of live pigs in the city so that no ASF-infected pigs will be able to enter and affect other pigs in the city to ensure the stability of the supply of pork considering the increasing demand for pork by both residents and tourists alike.
He said, that the delivery of some 300 to 350 hogs daily in the city already normalized after the Benguet provincial government decided to lift the temporary ban on the entry of live pigs in the province, including the city, recently, thus, retail prices of pork also stabilized.
Bested, disclosed that when the Benguet provincial government imposed the temporary ban on the entry of live pigs in the province following the reported ASF cases in La Trinidad, Itogon and Tuba, the supply of live pigs in the city drastically dropped to 100 to 150 wherein the supply came from local high raisers that triggered the sudden increase in the prices of pork from the previous P200 to P220 per kilo to as high as P250 per kilo.
He said that the retail prices of pork is now back to P200 to P220 per kilo after the supply of hogs normalized.
He explained that documents of live pigs being transported to the city are being properly checked by the quarantine inspectors and veterinarians to make sure that the supply come from farms and areas that do not have ASF cases aside from the fact that before the pigs are butchered, the same are inspected and after which, the butchered pigs undergo the required postmortem examination before the meat is released for sale to the prospective retailers.
He called on the public not to be alarmed over the reported ASF cases in the nearby towns of Benguet because the situation in the said areas had been under control by the concerned authorities in cooperation with the local governments.