‘ASF alert’ up on suspicious

meat sold in online markets

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 15 (PIA) –Be responsible online buyers, be responsible online sellers.

Feeling desperately helpless in the face of an invisible enemy and the task of convincing consumers of their rights, especially when it entails health and safety, Provincial Veterinarian Dr. Stella Marie Lapiz added, they can only do as much.

Dr. Lapiz’s call blared as a hog disease called African Swine Fever (ASF) which can overwhelm Bohol pig farms and backyard pigpens in less than a month, has been detected in Camiguin, some two hours away from Bohol.

It was in late 2021 when the Department of Agriculture detected the presence of the disease in farms and piggeries in Pampanga and Cavite and it did not take long before the disease has spread in mainland Luzon and even in Mindanao.

“We can not afford to have the virus here,” Dr. Lapiz said, meaning the virus that is causing hogs to have high fever, decreased appetite and weakness, red and blotchy skin lesions, diarrhea, vomiting, coughing and difficulty breathing.

Bohol, being isolated from the main land masses has been spared of the infections, but it may not be for long.

ASF has also alarmed Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado who has issued an Executive Order establishing the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) on ASF and Avian Flu, another viral disease that affects birds and fowl.

As PEC Vice Chair, Provincial veterinarian Dr. Lapiz, who immediately set the wheels in motion to patch all possible entry-points of the disease that can enter Bohol through undeclared and illegally shipped raw meat, processed meat, cooked or even canned meat and pork products or for the virus which could be carried by a passenger’s garments, shoes or anything that has touched an infected animal, manure or contaminated run-off water.

Amidst coordination meetings and reinvigorated campaign to make sure no such meat, raw or processes, cooked or dried can be innocently brought in by passengers, reports of online selling of undocumented pork trimmings, pork jowl and pork scraps at cheap prices, dominate the an online market page Bohol Deliveries.

The online sales, which resupply on Tuesdays and Fridays, also come raise concerns of the meat origins especially when buses from Manila to Bohol are on regular schedules.

There is an ongoing regulation in the entry of raw, processed, cooked pork and pork products in Bohol, only those shipments accompanied by proper documents including certifications from the Provincial Veterinary Office of origin, are allowed entry.

As buyers, we need to know where these meat come from, and even if these were from within Bohol, how do we know these are from healthy pigs?, asks a PEC member.

While meat from outside Bohol have to have documents stating these are not from ASF-affected areas and that the farms from where these come from never had any reports of hog diseases, locally sourced pigs for butchering, are inspected and certified by a representative of the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) to ascertain for its health condition for human consumption.

Without the NMIS seal on the meat, these could just be from questionable sources and may not be fit for human consumption.

Years back, the selling of double-dead meat rocked the hog industry, until the practice was exposed.

It is the consumer’s right to know where the product they are buying comes from, and if these are legitimate, and we urge the online sellers to declare their sources of the meat they are selling, to once and for all, calm the people’s apprehension and clear the issue of a possible source of the disease in Bohol, authorities at the Provincial Veterinarians Office stated.

Indeed, smuggled meat could topple the biosecurity fence that Bohol is setting up, so, before you add to cart, make sure it does not include the ASF in it, Dr. Lapiz pleaded. (rahc/PIA_7/Bohol)