In February 2020, Davao City announced during a press briefing that the city was no longer free from African Swine Fever (ASF) after Barangays Lamanan, Dominga, and Lamanan of Calinan District tested positive for the disease. The ASF-IATF and the Rapid Action Team spearheaded by the City Veterinarian’s Office quickly responded to the outbreak by conducting depopulation of hogs within a 1-kilometer radius from the infected area. The city immediately stopped the movement of live pigs and their by-products to control the spread of the virus. As a result of the incursion, 4,394 swine heads were culled, and 947 swine raisers indemnified. The farmers were advised to engage in another livelihood. It’s only the Department of Agriculture that would declare these affected barangays free from African Swine Fever. Once declared ASF-free, the farmers can go back to raising hogs. Resorting to another livelihood was not easy for most of the affected hog raisers, and until now, they have not recovered from their financial losses.
A year after the outbreak, the need to help ASF positive areas recover from the dreaded African Swine Fever disease is vital to increase the supply of pork products and by-products in the market. The reason that the Department of Agriculture launched the Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion (INSPIRE) Program, which envisions implementing calibrated repopulation and enhancement of the local swine industry through a strategy called “Clustering”. This strategy would help identify the farmer cluster/farmers association/cooperatives and individual farmer members affected by ASF.
Guided by the Department of Agriculture RFO XI, together with the City Veterinarian’s Office of Davao, a series of ASF Environmental Swabbing for Repopulation on Sentineling was performed. City Veterinary Office has evaluated farmers’ beneficiaries for sentinelling from the three (3) affected barangays in Calinan District. The identified farmer cluster would be prioritized as beneficiaries in the distribution of sentinel pigs. The sentinelling is a prelude to the Department of Agriculture’s swine repopulation program to increase hog production, and subsequently, stabilize the supply and prices of pork.
A total of 130 sentinel pigs would be distributed to the ASF-affected barangays of Calinan District to 55 hog raiser recipients. On October 19, 2021, sentinel pigs beneficiaries in Barangay Lamanan would likewise be evaluated.
