‘No reason to take their sweet time’: Villafuerte urges FDA to speed up registration of ASF vaccines

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte (PPAB)

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte is calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fast-track its registration process for the chosen vaccine against the African Swine Fever (ASF) in preparation for the upcoming nationwide inoculation drive.

This, after President Marcos announced that the government was eyeing either a June or July rollout of the immunization campaign.

“It would be a serious setback for the government-hoped recovery of the ASF-plagued hog industry if the mass vaccination program is not able to proceed as set by the President just because FDA officials had opted to sit on their hands instead of giving a timely go-ahead to the registration of the needed vaccine for the rollout,” Villafuerte said in a statement on Sunday, May 19.

The lawmaker said there is no reason for FDA officials to “take their own sweet time” in accrediting the Avac vaccine from Vietnam earlier endorsed by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and allowing its commercial use in the country.

He explained that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the FDA was able to speed up its registration and authorization process for the vaccines against Covid-19. This, after delays in the documentary requirements postponed the vaccine rollout.

Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP), stressed that an immunization program alone can “put an end to wholesale deaths and selective slaughter of hogs, allow swine raisers to recover and repopulate their farms or backyards, and eventually stabilize the supply and cost of pork products in the local market for the benefit of our consumers”.

“As pointed out by industry players, an immunization drive alone can prevent more ASF-related animal deaths, reverse the low hog supply in the country, reduce imports and prevent a repeat of the escalation in market prices of pork products in 2021 that was one reason for the undue spike in the country’s inflation rate,” he added.

According to Villafuerte, this would be especially vital for backyard hog raisers or the so-called small industry players to help them recover from the latest surge of ASF, which first resurfaced in the country in 2019.

In 2023, hog production in the Philippines increased slightly from 1.737 million metric tons (MT) from the previous year to 1.793 million MT. However, this figure is still below the average production of 2.25 million MT over the 2016 to 2019 period.

The BAI reported that ASF has reached 5,324 barangays in 73 provinces in 17 regions over the last five years.

As of mid-May, there are active cases of this lethal virus in 78 barangays, in 18 municipalities, in 11 provinces, in seven regions in the country. 

Villafuerte noted that because of the weak biosecurity measures in local farms, alongside the absence of an anti-ASF inoculation program, the government has struggled with its hog repopulation program.

With a proper vaccine rollout still yet to hit the ground, the congressman proposed that the Department of Agriculture (DA) “declare a state of in ASF-struck areas, so calamity or quick response funds can be accessed at once for the planned immunization drive".

In addition, to “subsidize 100 percent of the cost of the shots for backyard raisers, who make up the bulk of local hog growers and who are still reeling from the adverse impact on their small enterprises of this deadly animal disease,” he said.