(Illustrative photo: www.scmp.com) Hanoi (VNA) – The Philippines’ Department of Agriculture on October 1threatened legal action against hog traders ignoring strict animal quarantinerules.
The countryrecently confirmed new cases of African swine fever (ASF) infections in Manilaand the northern province of Pangasinan.
PhilippineAgriculture Secretary William Dar said there is still enough pork supply in thedomestic market, and that the government is making sure that only pork meatmarked safe to eat by the government's National Meat Inspection Service is soldto consumers.
Relevantagencies have asked the local government units to further strengthen theircheckpoints, he said, to make sure undocumented hogs possibly infected with thevirus will not be transported to other provinces.
Theincurable disease is wreaking havoc on hog industries in Southeast Asia.
ThePhilippines, the world's 10th-largest pork consumer and seventh-biggestimporter, declared its first outbreak of the disease on September 9.
At least20,000 pigs have so far been culled or have died because of the disease in thecountry since last month.
Agricultureofficials suspect the virus was brought to local farms via food scraps, orswill, from hotels and restaurants fed to pigs, mixed with contaminatedimported pork products.
To protecttheir hog-raising businesses, several provinces in central and southernPhilippines have imposed a ban on the entry of pork and pork-based productsfrom the disease-hit areas, including Manila capital city.
ThePhilippines’ hog-raising sector has suffered an estimated loss of 260 billionPHP (about 5 billion USD) due to the ASF, which is harmless to humans but hasup to 100 percent fatality rate for pigs./.
