Agriculture Assistant Secretary Constante Palabrica —Jordeene B. Lagare
The Department of Agriculture (DA) is targeting to accelerate the inoculation of hogs against the deadly African swine fever (ASF) following a positive response from those so far tested.
In an interview on Monday, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Constante Palabrica said the department was studying strategies on how to expand the vaccination to cover as many pigs as possible.
The government is ready to purchase 500,000 doses from Vietnam this month, and 100,000 more before the end of the year.
He said protocols in administering the vaccines, including selecting the pigs for study and getting their blood samples, have so far slowed down the program.
“It will take, on average, three weeks,” the agriculture official said, referring to the timeline from choosing the hogs to the actual vaccination.
Nearly 400 hogs in two towns in Batangas have been inoculated by the agency so far.
The DA initially vaccinated 41 hogs in Lobo town—the ground zero for the ASF resurgence—on Aug. 30. Over the weekend, the vaccination program was extended to grower pigs at the International Training Center on Pig Husbandry, a government training center in Lipa City.
The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) reported the pigs in Lobo exhibited an average enzyme-linked immunoassay (Elisa) percentage blocking of 90 percent after receiving the vaccines.
The BAI explained the pigs were now building a strong immune defense against the ASF based on the Elisa test, which measures their antibody levels in response to vaccination.
“In veterinary, we call it zero conversion. It means the pig’s body is converting the vaccine into antibody,” Palabrica said.
He said they expected herd immunity of Batangas hogs to reach at least 95 percent in the next 30 days.
“We want to show to the public that the government is confident about the effectivity of the vaccines. This is also optics … we want the antivaxxers to see that it’s effective,” he told reporters.
ASF, a highly contagious viral disease afflicting domestic and wild pigs, has affected the local hog industry since 2019, sustaining billions of pesos in losses.
According to the World Organization for Animal Health, while the animal disease is not considered a danger to human health, it can have devastating effects on pig populations and the livelihood of farmers and food security, in general.
In the Philippines, there are active cases in 14 regions and 30 provinces, based on the BAI’s tally as of Oct. 2.
Infected provinces were parts of Abra, Ifugao, Kalinga, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Cagayan, Isabela, Tarlac, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, Rizal, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur and Catanduanes.
Other affected provinces were Masbate, Sorsogon, Negros Occidental, Biliran, Samar, Zamboanga del Norte, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte.