Before the Coronavirus pandemic scare created the lockdown in the country this year, a complex viral disease already caused lockdowns of piggery farms last year and severely affected the swine industry– the African Swine Fever (ASF).
Unlike the Coronavirus, ASF is not a public health risk, as the disease is not considered zoonotic, or it cannot be passed to humans. This was further explained by Dr. Neil Tanquilut, during the Living Dangerously Lecture Series entitled “Biosecurity: Key to the Control and Prevention of ASF”, last 29 May 2020.
Dr. Tanquilut, a professor at the Pampanga State Agricultural University and currently a PhD by research student of the School of Environmental science and Management-University of the Philippines Los Baños (SESAM-UPLB), said pigs deaths were reported as early as July 2019. However, the Department of Agriculture- Bureau of Animal Industry (DA-BAI) only confirmed the first case in the Province of Rizal in August 9, 2019.
First described in Kenya in 1920, ASF is one of the most complex viral diseases affecting pigs. Currently, it has affected 10 municipalities (876 barangays) and 282,436 animals culled. ”It severely affected the P260B swine industry with 65% of producers are backyard raisers”, Dr. Tanquilut said.
According to Dr. Tanquilut, ASF is spreading fast in Asia. In the Philippines, the virus spread due to illegal trade, smuggling and misdeclaration of processed pork products; floods and waterways; ecological factors; and socio-cultural reasons. Another cause of the spread is also attributed to policy and implementation concerns such as low budget of LGUs for livestock; inadequate veterinary services in rural areas; poor monitoring in backyard and commercial farms; and late reporting and responses.
The virus is tenacious according to Dr. Tanquilut. Once affected, pigs will have a high fever, loss of appetite, hemorrhages in the skin and internal organs and death in two to ten days on average. “ASF can survive up to 18 months in serum at room temperature and can stay infective in raw ham, sausage and treated meat products for several months. However, cooking the pork will kill the virus in minutes”, he added.
Assistance is now being rolled out to affected hog raisers, according to Dr. Tanquiliut, as the government provided free lab ASF test, indemnification fund, technical and manpower assistance for surveillance and depopulation, the DA SURE Aid Programme (PhP30,000 for each hog raiser; payable in three years at zero interest) and post outbreak animal recovery packages.
“There is no vaccine yet for ASF” said Dr. Tanquilut. He mentioned the only way to go is ASF prevention and control. These include improvement of biosecurity status of swine farms such as preparation of biosecurity guidelines for commercial and backyard farms; Identifying and training biosecurity officers; assessing biosecurity compliance (biosecurity audits); assisting farms to improve biosecurity; monitor biosecurity compliance; and stopping the “self-slaughtering practice, swill feeding and “predatory trading”
Dr. Tanquilut also mentioned the implementation of the “1-7-10 “Protocol– the culling all pigs within 1 km radius from outbreak zone (ground zero), which also includes establishment of quarantine checkpoints; surveillance within the 7 km radius with restricted movement and blood testing; and 10 km radius- mandatory monitoring and reporting of swine disease occurrences. In addition, he recommended the use of the free online tool BIOCHECK PIGS. It assesses external and internal biosecurity of farms and will generate rating of biosecurity score, and eventually prevents transmission of the disease.
This 4th Living Dangerously lecture Series was organized by the Continuing Education and Training (CET) Division of SESAM, with support from the Information Technology Center of UPLB. This webinar attracted more than 100 local and international attendees from the academe, national and local government agencies and other private organizations.
