Gov’t plans to buy 600K doses of ASF vaccines before yearend

Manila: The government is looking to complete the procurement of 600,000 doses of vaccine against African swine fever (ASF) within the year to rebuild the country's pork industry. In a Palace press briefing on Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel said inoculation for the initial 10,000 doses of ASF vaccination will be finished this month, with an additional 450,000 doses expected to be delivered later this year. 'The first 10,000 doses, the vaccination will be finished by the end of the month. The schedule for the award for the next 450,000 doses is on October 10, of which we will take delivery of 150,000 doses by then,' Tiu-Laurel said. 'But we hope to complete the procurement of 600,000 doses by (the) end of December this year,' he added. In July 2019, the Philippines reported its first cases of ASF in Rizal province since then, the virus has spread to other provinces including Batangas, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, and Cavite. The ASF outbreak significantly impacted the Philippine po rk industry, resulting in the culling of 300,000 pigs and a decline in the growth rate of pork production. Beyond affecting farmers, the ASF also led to higher pork prices, impacting vulnerable consumers' livelihoods. To address this, the government launched its first vaccination among 41 healthy and ASF-negative hogs in small backyard farms in Lobo town in Batangas, which has been identified as ground zero for the largest ASF outbreak since the monsoon season began. The inoculation program will be expanded to reach other areas in Visayas and Mindanao. According to Tiu-Laurel, the ASF vaccination will help rebuild investor confidence in the Philippines' hog industry. 'Hopefully everything will be implemented on schedule. Sana by next year, puro repopulating nalang tayo at tuluy-tuloy na ang paglaki at pagbalik ng population ng ating mga baboy to above 14 million heads. Ngayon nasa around 7.5 million heads lang eh ang baboy na estimate natin (We're hoping that by next year, we will just focus on repopulat ing and the population of our pigs will continue to grow and return to above 14 million heads. According to our estimate, we only have around 7.5 million heads),' the agriculture chief said. Overstaying rice containers In the same press briefing, Tiu-Laurel said some of the consignees of the over 800 containers containing 23 million kilos of imported rice found to be overstaying at the Manila Port have already shut down operations. However, the agriculture chief said his department is investigating to determine if there are criminal liabilities on the part of the consignees. He added that those containers that will be deemed abandoned may be taken and used by the government for programs such as the Kadiwa project once the rice shipments pass their food safety and quality checks. Source: Philippines News Agency