President and Agriculture Secretary Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. has directed the Department of Agriculture’s (DA’s) Western Visayas office to test every pig breeding facility in the region to stop the spread of the African Swine Fever (ASF).

The order was issued during a situation briefing in Bacolod City on Sunday, Oct. 23, where the DA-Western Visayas regional office said that cases of ASF had been recorded in the region, particularly in Iloilo.
According to Marcos, every precaution to stop its spread has already been taken, including a prohibition on the consumption of pork in infected areas.
Testing all breeding farms for ASF is one of the most effective ways of preventing infection spread, he said.
Marcos noted that the infection's apparent ability to spread via mosquitoes presents one of the difficulties in treating it.
Since the first known outbreak in July 2019, Iloilo and the whole Western Visayas region were among the last few places in the nation to be ASF-free.
ASF is a highly contagious and deadly viral disease affecting domestic and feral swine of all ages, according to the US Department of Agriculture.