EDITORIAL - ASF containment

Prices of basic commodities including most food items are expected to keep rising as fuel prices continue to soar, with the latest hikes imposed at P4.20 per liter for diesel, P2.15 for gasoline and P4.85 for kerosene.

On top of the fuel price surge arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, meat supply and prices in the Philippines are being pushed up by the continuing spread of African Swine Fever. As of last weekend, 250 new ASF cases were reported nationwide, with 199 of them in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The rest of the cases were in Luzon, where ASF was first detected in 2019. Unfortunately, the initially aggressive and high-profile effort to stop the spread of the viral disease, with disinfection and carcass disposal carried out by persons in protective clothing, was relegated to the sidelines by the spread of COVID-19.

Since ASF was first detected, 10,068 confirmed infections have been recorded, with the virus killing 1,309 hogs in Luzon and 5,821 in the Visayas and Mindanao. But the contagion has also forced the killing and disposal of 414,639 hogs so far in Luzon and another 66,650 in the rest of the country.

Those figures should be worrisome enough for the government to give more urgency to the containment of ASF. Luzon has been sourcing pork from the Visayas and Mindanao to augment supplies. Local hog raisers have expressed concern that the government, instead of intensifying efforts to contain ASF, will simply increase pork imports to stabilize domestic supply and prices.

The Department of Agriculture is working to develop a vaccine against ASF. Clinical studies are being undertaken by the Bureau of Animal Industry together with Universal Robina Corp. and Chulalongkorn University of Thailand, which like Vietnam is ahead in research and development of a vaccine against ASF.

Any vaccine, however, is still months away from rollout. While waiting for the results of the clinical trials, countries have no other recourse but to prevent the further spread of the disease. Protocols for this were strictly enforced at the start of the ASF infestation in the Philippines, with the transport of livestock and meat products tightly regulated and farms with reported cases isolated. With ASF cases spreading across the country, containment efforts must be intensified.