ILOILO – Seven towns expressed interest in the sentinelling program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 6.
The program aims to determine if African Swine Fever (ASF)-affected hog raisers could gradually return to raising swine.
Thetowns were Santa Barbara, Concepcion, Leganes, San Miguel, Alimodian, Ajuy, and Zarraga.
Each hog raiser will be given one sentinel piglet to raise, which will be monitored to see whether or not it gets infected by the hog disease.
Dr. Darel Tabuada, head of the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO), said preparations have started.
Last week, the PVO, livestock technicians, and DA met to establish the requirements. It was also agreed that the program would be implemented at the barangay level for closer monitoring.
The following were the set criteria:
* no recorded ASF outbreak in the barangay for the past 40 days
* if possible, the barangay had zero swine left
* if there are swine left, it is encouraged that the hog raiser include them in the sentinelling program
* biosecurity measures should still be in place.
“Dapat wala sang baboy ang specific nga barangay, or kon may baboy nga nabilin, i-encourage ang farmers nga ang baboy nga ina will be part sang sentinelling program man,” Tabuada said.
Within 40 days, the PVO, DA and Municipal Agriculture Office will monitor the sentinel piglet regularly by collecting blood samples to test for ASF infection.
Once the test shows that the sentinel piglet is not infected, the farmer will be given two additional sentinel piglets.
“So, if ma-clear, puede na makabalik sa pagsagod sang baboy ang aton farmers sasinanga barangay,” the PVO head added.
Tabuada said DA-6 would provide sentinel piglets to 240 farmers in the region.
But since only the province of Iloilo is preparing the requirements for now, all of it could be given to hog raisers here.
The PVO livestock technicians are currently at the barangay level to check which barangays from the seven towns are qualified to avail themselves of the sentinelling program.
As of now, 27 towns in Iloilo are affected by ASF:Oton, San Miguel, Alimodian, Santa Barbara, Leganes, New Lucena, Mina, Janiuay, Dumangas, Barotac Nuevo, Pototan, Dingle, Banate, Barotac Viejo, Ajuy, Concepcion, San Dionisio, Batad, Estancia, Balasan, Maasin, Badiangan, Dueñas, San Enrique, Zarraga, Lambunao, and Carles./PN
