By Antonio Colina IV DAVAO CITY – A total of 2,039 pigs were culled in Barangay Inayangan, Calinan District, Davao City after laboratory results confirmed the presence of the dreaded African Swine Fever (ASF) among the local swine population, an official of the Department of Agriculture (DA)-Davao Region said on Wednesday. In an interview, DA-Davao information officer Noel Provido said the government immediately conducted the depopulation of hogs owned mostly by backyard farmers after results of the confirmatory tests came out on February 19 showing pigs in Barangay Inayangan tested for ASF. He said at least 411 farmers were affected. Depopulation was conducted earlier in Barangays Lamanan and Dominga in Calinan District due to ASF infection, believed to have spread through traders who sneaked in infected pigs from Sulop, Davao del Sur. The City Government of Davao has set aside P32.2 million, taken from the city’s quick response fund, as cash assistance for the affected farmers here. Provido said a total of 4,394 pigs were slaughtered in Davao City, including those from Barangays Lamanan and Dominga. In the region, he said the agency reported a total of 18,007 pigs killed.  Of those, almost 70-percent of them came from Davao Occidental with 12,562 (6,624 Don Marcelino, 4,448 Malita, and 1,490 Jose Abad Santos), and 1,051 in Sulop, Davao del Sur. The local government units in Davao Region have already enforced the “1-7-10” protocol to manage, contain, and control the spread of the ASF, first reported in Don Marcelino, Davao Occidental on January 28. The protocol requires that all pigs within the one-kilometer radius of infected farms will be culled, limits animal movement within seven-kilometer radius, and obliges swine farms within a 10-kilometer radius to submit a mandatory report on the disease, he added. Despite the ASF outbreak, the region continued to import frozen pork products from ASF-free countries, according to data from the DA-Bureau of Animal Industry (DA-BAI). Data from DA-BAI showed that frozen pork imports in the region totaled 287,774,859 kilograms as of October 2019. Of the total, the record revealed that the biggest supply of imported frozen pork to Davao came from Spain, which accounted for 110,779,321 kgs. Canada came second highest with 35,240,100 kgs., followed by France (34,752,913 kgs), Germany (28,412,786 kgs), US (27,635, 549 kgs.), Netherlands (19,462,944 kgs.), UK (8,901,134), Denmark (5,852,000), Brazil (5,228,949), Ireland (4,696,376), Australia (4,589,561), Italy (1,421,499), and Austria (801,726).