Bulacan swine industry now under pink category on ASF
Mon Lazaro October 12, 2023 at 10:42 AM
CITY OF MALOLOS — The swine industry in Bulacan is now categorized under the Pink Zone or buffer zone for the African Swine Fever (ASF).
This was confirmed to the ARKIPELAGO NEWS BULACAN by Dtr.Voltaire Basinang, provincial veterinarian of Bulacan.
A Pink Zone ASF category are areas that served as buffers where the deadly virus is not present while Red Zone ASF category are areas where the swine infection has been detected.
The last known ASFincident in Bulacan was detected on December 15 last year in San Miguel town, Basinang noted.
The whole province of Bulacan was placed under the pink ASF category in September and backyard and commercial swine raisers are now starting to engage again on pork production that was greatly affected by the ASF outbreak, Basinang said.
To prevent another outbreak of the ASF in the province, basinang said swine raisers are being advised to use disinfectants in their farms and limit the number of persons and vehicles from going to and from their pig pens and desist from feeding the animals with food scraps.
Basinang also noted that the farmgate price of swine is now pegged at P175 per kilo and average production cost ranges from P130.00 to P150.00 per kilo depending on what kind offeeds and health programs the raisers are using.
The provincial veterinary office of Bulacan is now coordinating with the different local government units of Bulacan on the current swine population in the province, Basinang added.