Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol yesterday ordered the relief of the quarantine group at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for failing to follow protocols to prevent the entry of the African swine fever (ASF) in the country.
“The relief of the whole quarantine team at the NAIA should send a clear message to Department of Agriculture (DA) personnel that we cannot take administrative directives for granted,” he said.
Pinol said the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), headed by Acting Director Ronnie Domingo, had been ordered “to ensure that footbaths and other quarantine measures are established in all entry points of the country” as part of the government’s move to protect the country’s swine industry.
However, staff from the NAIA quarantine group failed to establish the footbath facility due to “procurement issues.”
“As Secretary of Agriculture who is in charge of the implementation of these measures, I apologise to the stakeholders of the hog industry for this administrative lapse,” said Pinol.
He urged consumers to buy locally-produced meat.
“The threat is real and it could affect an industry which benefits millions of families, mostly small backyard farmers, who raise 15mn heads of hogs every year,” he warned.
 
The Bureau of Customs was also directed to confiscate all meat products brought in by passengers arriving from swine flu-hit countries.
ASF is a highly contagious haemorrhagic disease of domestic and wild hogs. It poses no danger to humans, but its spread may threaten the hog industry.
To prevent the entry of the disease into the Philippines, the BAI earlier banned the importation of pork-based products from China, Hungary, Belgium, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Moldova, South Africa and Zambia due to the quick spread of the African swine fever in these countries.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the country’s total swine inventory is estimated at 13.13mn heads as of Oct 1, 2018. The Philippines is ranked eighth in the world in terms of meat volume production and number of breeding sows.