Swine fever spreading in Philippines
MANILA • The Philippines confirmed yesterday that African swine fever infections had spread in the south of the country, which accounts for nearly a third of the nation’s 12.8 million pig herd.
Additional cases have also been identified in some northern provinces, said the Department of Agriculture.
The world’s 10th-largest pork consumer and seventh-biggest pork importer reported its first African swine fever outbreaks in September last year in some backyard farms near its capital Manila on the northern island of Luzon.
But a week ago, the agricultural department said samples from pigs in the southern province of Davao Occidental had tested positive for the highly contagious disease, which kills pigs but is not harmful to humans.
The department said yesterday 407 pigs had been culled in two villages, with a swine population of 2,398, in Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao.
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