The government’s quarantine and surveillance measures may not be as effective as believed to be after food waste coming from Luzon and even Indonesia is seen to have caused the outbreak of African swine fever in Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines — The government’s quarantine and surveillance measures may not be as effective as believed to be after food waste coming from Luzon and even Indonesia is seen to have caused the outbreak of African swine fever in Mindanao.

“Investigations show the outbreak in Davao Occidental could be that the ASF virus was brought in through swill feeds or food wastes from pork products brought from ASF-affected Indonesia.

Or from food items brought home by residents working in Bulacan and Pampanga, in Luzon, and in Quezon City, during the Christmas season,” chief veterinarian and Bureau of Animal Industry director Ronnie Domingo said.

The Department of Agriculture continues to investigate how ASF got into a town in Davao Occidental when the disease has been concentrated in Luzon. The government has repeatedly said it has ramped up quarantine measures to avoid the spread of ASF.

It was in December last year when Indonesia confirmed its first outbreak of ASF.

So far, Davao Occidental and Davao City have confirmed cases of ASF in Mindanao after the disease incursion in Davao City where dozens of hogs in Barangays Dominga and Lamanan of Calinan District died.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the hogs were brought by traders from a livestock auction market in Sulop in Davao del Sur that sources hogs from nearby towns of Don Marcelino and Malita in Davao Occidental—both earlier declared as ASF-infected areas.

Latest data showed that 407 heads of hogs were culled, out of the total swine population of 2,398 in the two barangays. Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte has offered an additional P5,000 per head on top of the P5,000 given by the DA to each affected hog raiser.