CEBU CITY – The Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines Inc. (ProPork) has urged the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Animal Industry (DA-BAI) to review and consider the protocols that the provincial government of Cebu are taking to manage African Swine Fever (ASF). ProPork also expressed concern over the current protocols being enforced by the national government. “We would like to reiterate our call for the national leadership of the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Animal Industry (DA-BAI) to immediately review and consider Cebu’s African Swine Fever (ASF) protocol or else we can start saying goodbye to our P260-billion local hog industry and consumers. The Filipinos will suffer,” the group said. ProPork, headed by chairman Nicanor Briones and president Rolando Tambago, noted that BAI has been implementing the 500-meter radius culling protocol to fight ASF for more than three years now and yet the disease continues to spread across the country. The failure to stop the spread of the disease has caused massive economic losses to the local pork industry, which contributed to current high inflation, the group said. “We agree and support the brave move of the Cebu provincial government under the leadership of Gov. Gwendolyn F. Garcia to try another protocol as an option to fight this economically devastating disease,” ProPork said. The group added the measures that Garcia are enforcing aim to strike a balance between controlling the spread of the disease and protecting the already limited inventory of hogs. “Its method calls for early detection, testing, isolation, and destruction (or culling) if found infected. It does not indiscriminately cull even healthy pigs,” ProPork said. “We see this move as a good option especially so that Cebu is among the few remaining large hog-producing provinces in the country now and is filling the supply gap of other regions, including Metro Manila.” The group said that based on reports from farmers in Cebu, there have been no new cases of ASF reported since the implementation of the protocol and industry players have seen stable farm gate prices. “This only shows that the protocol is effective and merits an immediate review and adoption,” it said With the current 500-meter radius culling protocol, half of the total P260-billion swine industry or at least five million heads have been lost. Of the five million heads, only around 20 percent of that were actually infected, ProPork added. “Should the indiscriminate culling of even the healthy hogs continue, we would not be surprised if within the coming months we would see prices of pork spiking to a level that will no longer be affordable to consumers,” the group said.