Officials of the Bureau of Animal Industry told legislators Monday the climate is expected to play a big role in preventing the spread of the African swine fever.
Swine raisers in many parts of the country have had to cull their stocks to prevent the disease from spreading, but to no avail.
From a few incidence of ASF in Rizal province some months ago, the disease has spread to some pig farms as far as Mindanao.
At a congressional hearing by the House Committees on Agriculture and Food and on Local Government, BAI Director Ronnie Domingo said “the ASF virus does not like dry weather, and that is why we expect the climate to help in eradicating the disease.”
A government crisis management team has been set up to address the ASF outbreak.
BAI data indicate that, as of Nov. 18, the ASF has affected pig farms in 50 towns and 461 in seven provinces and some parts of Metro Manila.
Domingo said of those villages 389 were in Central Luzon, prompting the activation of an Incident Command center in Pampanga to seek ways of preventing the disease from spreading in the region.
As of Nov. 4, 40,303 pigs had been culled and disposed of to contain the disease, he said.
Domingo said President Rodrigo Duterte had approved the release of P1 billion from his contingent fund to address the ASF outbreak, while the Department of Budget and Management had released P82.5 million to the BAI for preventive measures against the ASF.