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Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte says the upcoming rollout of imported vaccines to curb the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) will help revitalize the country’s hog industry.

In a statement on Thursday, May 30, Villafuerte said the Department of Agriculture (DA) is set to kick off the vaccination program either this June or July, as previously announced by President Marcos.

“The anti-ASF vaccine rollout…is expected to put an end to ASF-related deaths of locally grown pigs, thereby stabilizing the hog population, stanching the multibillion-peso annual losses in this livestock subsector, and eventually pulling down the retail prices of pork products that have unduly spiraled ever since this deadly virus struck the country in 2019,” he said.

The lawmaker stressed that the local hog industry continues to reel from the shortfall in pork supply and the resulting market price spike.

This, despite several policy measures initiated by the DA and its BAI (Bureau of Animal Industry) to repopulate the domestic hog population amid ASF outbreaks all over the country.

ASF carries an almost 100 percent fatality rate for infected pigs and boars.

The disease has led to a 50 percent drop in the domestic swine population, from 13 million before it first appeared in 2019, to 6.6 million in 2021.

With the absence of a nationwide vaccine drive, the pork inventory in cold storage facilities now totals 50,658 metric tons (MT) as of May 2024. This is a huge decrease from last year’s 67,359 MT, according to the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS).

“Because of the continued supply shortfall, pork prices have jumped from the previous average of P250 a kilo in the market to the current P400 and above,” noted Villafuerte.

Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP), earlier told the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to speed up its registration process for the chosen Avac vaccine from Vietnam to prevent any serious setbacks.

“The FDA needs to be on track with its registration and accreditation process for the Vietnamese-made vaccine because the implementation of an immunization drive by the DA-attached BAI is contingent on the availability of this anti-ASF drug, which, in turn, will depend on when our [FDA] can give its go-signal to the commercial use of these shots for our local hogs,” he explained.

According to BAI, the ASF outbreak has reached 5,324 barangays, in 73 provinces, in 17 regions over the last five years.

As of mid-May, there are active ASF cases in 11 provinces, in seven regions.