In adherence to the request of Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar for a continuous inter-regional and inter-island transport of hogs, pork, and pork products, the Cagayan Valley Region had shipped out 1,551 hogs to National Capital Region (NCR) and other areas of Luzon in less than a month.

“We will continuously support the movement of hogs to help ensure food security amid the COVID19 pandemic,” said Regional Executive Director Narciso A. Edillo of the Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Office No. 02 (DA-RFO 02).

He thanked the unified effort of the public and private sector for making the region’s swine industry alive again after the occurrence of African Swine Fever (ASF), which is now slowly eradicated, as shown in the significant decrease of cases in the past two (2) months.

“We hope that ASF will already be contained the soonest so that our swine raisers can fully bounce back from their losses.”

The report covers the period from April 2 to 27, 2020.

According to Dr. Zaldy Olivas, regional veterinary quarantine officer of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), this does not mean that the protocols in checkpoints are no longer practiced.

“We ensure that quarantine measures and zoning are still observed since the ASF virus is still not yet eliminated,” he said.

He cleared that the hogs being shipped are from ASF free areas.

“We inspected the farms and issued them certification to effect the shipments,” Olivas added.

He mentioned that aside from hogs, poultry products are also continuously being shipped out from the region.

“We also conduct an inventory of eggs and poultry products going out of the region.”

To date, a total of 46,000 table eggs, 619,089 hatching eggs, and 185,484 dressed chickens were shipped to various places of Luzon to include NCR and Regions 1 and 3.

#WeHealAndWinAsOne #SwineIndustryToBounceBack

(With reports from Hector Tabbun)