The Iloilo Provincial Government is ensuring strengthened biosecurity measures in backyard piggeries even if no new cases of African swine fever (ASF) have been monitored in over a year.
“Our effort is no longer on the streets or borders but in every backyard,” provincial veterinarian Dr. Darel Tabuada said in an interview on Friday, March 27.
The province has allocated P1 million for the biosecurity training of livestock farmers that will be conducted in a demo area –a bio-secured backyard farm– which is being proposed in the municipality of Tigbauan.
He said the industry has already recovered, but livestock farmers should not be complacent, and backyard farmers have to improve their animal husbandry practices amid the increasing swine inventory.
The procurement process for the training is ongoing and they hope to start the initiative in May.
Tabuada added more than half of the 28 local government units with infected cases have progressed to the pink or the buffer zone.
In pink zones, farmers are allowed to raise hogs but on a staggered basis under the Department of Agriculture’s sentinel program, where repopulation is controlled and regulated.PNA
