The Department of Agriculture (DA) should focus on scaling up the still limited efforts towards the prevention of African Swine Fever (ASF), as the “runaway infection spread” has been the major contributor to the soaring pork price in the country.
“ASF ang puno’t dulo ng problema, kaya ASF dapat ang solusyunan (ASF is the root cause of the problem, that’s why we should find solutions to the ASF),” Senator Risa Hontiveros said on Sunday.
“The government should instead channel its efforts to bring credibility to testing, reporting and responding to local outbreaks, among others. Hindi nakakatulong ang ipinataw nilang price control (imposing a price control won’t help), so let’s look deeper than the surface),” she pointed out.
Hontiveros noted that the DA is attempting to boost local hog supply by distributing mother pigs and feeds to ASF-cleared areas but hog raisers still fear subsequent waves of infection and will only tend to sell in panic when they hear rumors of ASF cases in nearby towns.
“Like COVID, there’s no vaccine for ASF. If we fail to stop the spread of this virus, it will slowly kill, not only our own swine production but the livelihood of many of our people,” the senator lamented.
She pointed out the recovery of supplies is based on the confidence of investors that the infections will be “within bounds, controllable and compensable.”
The lawmaker also urged the DA to guide and teach stakeholders in the hog industry on swine care management and prevent the spread of the epidemic before distributing sow for repopulation.
“What we need here is early detection, physical distancing, and frequent testing in the animals which is now being tried by veterinarians in other countries,” she stated.
Although set with good intentions, Hontiveros said the government’s 60-day price ceiling on pork and chicken products in Metro Manila has only exacerbated the plight of hog producers and sellers.
She said the price cap is making it almost impossible for vendors to recover from the “twin-demic” of COVID-19 and ASF.
“We are experiencing a ‘twindemic’—a pandemic of the COVID-19 and the epidemic and ASF. It also added a burden to our hog producers who are reeling from the price ceiling imposed,” she pointed out.
“Producers and retailers are groaning. So many experts have opposed this price ceiling on pork price. The government should retract this so our hog raisers can recover from their losses,” she stressed.