ASF outbreak confirmed in 3 areas in Bulacan, Rizal —DA

The Department of Agriculture said Monday an outbreak of the African swine fever has been confirmed in only three particular places in the provinces of Rizal and Bulacan.

The official declaration of “outbreak is based on the confirmation of tests we released last week,” DA spokesperson Noel Reyes told GMA News Online.

It is officially declared an outbreak “in Guiguinto, Bulacan and in Rodriguez and Antipolo in Rizal, Reyes noted.

“So far there are no other places included, but we are monitoring reports … at pinapaigting pa namin ngayon ang monitoring and quarantine protocols,” Reyes emphasized.

In Malacañang, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the DA has already taken steps to contain the spread of ASF.

“The Department of Agriculture has really made specific areas where that disease is contained, meaning in Rodriguez, Antipolo and one part of Bulacan,” Panelo said at a news conference.

“By this time, those areas have been informed what they should do relative to that," he added.

On September 9, the department confirmed that 14 of the 20 blood samples from pigs in suspected areas in the country were found to be positive for ASF.

The samples were collected from hogs in three barangays in the Rizal province where around 100 pigs died last month. These were sent to the World Reference Laboratory in Pirbright, England for confirmatory testing.

“‘Yung sa Rizal po kasi, if it’s a new case it can be considered as an outbreak,” BAI Director Ronnie Domingo said in a separate interview with CNN Philippines.

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) defines an outbreak as “the occurrence of one or more cases in an epidemiological unit” or a group of animals that share the same likelihood of exposure to a pathogenic agent.

In a separate mobile message on Monday, Reyes sent a list of ASF-infected barangays of which six are in Rodriguez, Rizal:

• Mascap
• San Jose
• Macabud
• San Isidro
• Geronimo
• San Rafael

In Antiopolo City, only Barangay Cupang is on the DA’s list.

On the other hand, the San Mateo Slaughterhouse in Rizal and “an animal stockyard in Barangay Pritil in Guiguinto, Bulacan” were also on the list.

On Sunday, more than 900 pigs and piglets were culled in Quezon City a day after Mayor Joy Belmonte confirmed nearly a dozen hogs in Barangay Bagong Silangan died of ASF.

Hog raisers have appealed to the local government for compensation for the culled animals.

The local government is studying how much it can give to the hog raisers. —With Jon Viktor Cabuenas and Virgil Lopez/VDS/KG, GMA News