DAVAO CITY - Amid reports on the spread of the swine flu, the Davao City Veterinarian’s Office (CVO) assured that the pork products sold in the city's public markets are free from the African Swine Fever (ASF).
CVO head Dr. Cerelyn Pinili said they have been intensifying their monitoring of all public markets to ensure that all pork meat and pork processed products here are safe for consumption.
Pinili said the CVO has also taken samples of the chorizo and tocino products from the public markets of Agdao, Toril, Mintal, Calinan, Panacan,Tibungco, and Bankerohan for testing and the results all came out negative for ASF.
“The processed pork meat sold in these public markets are safe to eat. The CVO will continue to monitor all markets and conduct seminars for the meat vendors about the ASF,” Pinili said.
She added that the CVO has been holding seminars for vendors about ASF for them to be informed on what to do and where they can get pork meat products that are certified safe by the CVO.
“The office is also monitoring hog farms in Marilog District and Calinan District following the report of an ASF outbreak in neighboring areas of Magpet and Arakan in North Cotabato province,” Pinili said.
The city government has urged the public to check the documents of the meat merchants such as the meat inspection certificate (MIC) issued by relevant government agencies to ensure that they are purchasing products from the right store.
The CVO also urged all pork meat sellers to make sure that their source of meat is certified by the city government.