With boar for hire suspension
Vet authorities promote
‘Artificial insemination’
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—With African Swine Fever (ASF) virus now becoming almost endemic in Bohol, Veterinary authorities are making sure that pig-farms and small backyard growers do not start off with the wrong foot.
Artificial insemination, says Agricultural Center Chief and Livestock Department head of the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian Aida Sumampong, in the current moratorium of all boar for hire activities.
Speaking at the Kapihan sa PIA detailing the current state of Bohol’s live stock industry, Sumampong said the proliferation of boar for hire business is among what authorities suspected as one of the causes of the spread of the virus from one site to another.
As keeping a boar proves to be one task too many for small farmers, hiring boars to impregnate their breeders has become a next to the standard natural breeding.
Boars, which incidentally get into infected areas, or in one way or another, touch, step on things that may have carried the virus, are transported from one farm to another, that could be the cause of the transfer of the virus.
Moreover, carried of service vehicles that are getting in and out of farms, without proper disinfection, the virus could easily get to the boar, which can also pass the virus to the sow.
Naturally, owners want to get the most number of litter, sired by the largest boars, this assures them a better profit, so they would want to physically see the boar to be convinced, according to a family farm keeper.
With artificial insemination however, breeder owners are assured of the best quality of as the semen, which is sourced out from the Provincial Livestock and Poultry Farm in Bilar, says Sumampong, during the radio program streamed online.
Extracted from genetically superior boars, the semen is inserted into the sow’s vulva and with the aid of the exact science of determining the female animal’s heat periods and ovulation, to be assured of improved number of litter herd quality, she said.
By boar for hire, with the board owner getting one litter as form of payment, this is more expensive than getting AI shots which do not cost as much.
Finally, using artificial insemination helps farm owners maintain their biosecurity in their farms, by only allowing the entry of the technician who performs the insemination.
It also solves the problem of using non-disinfected vehicles into affected areas.
In Bohol, the OPV has put up semen stocks, which last from 5-7 days in three strategic storing areas: in the town of Guindulman, Loon and Pilar, Sumampong added.
As boar for hire businesses remain to be suspended, OPV official said breeder owners only have to inform their nearest Barangay livestock Aides they want to have AI services, and they will know what to do.
With AI, pig farmers are assured that their farms are not accepting just anyone, bolstering their biosecurity which they have practiced, and are spared from the trouble of having to pray that the next batch of litter gets to grow into potential profits. (PIABohol)
BIOSECURITY BOOSTER. Artificial Insemination (AI) is the veterinarian’s response to the moratorium on the services of boar for hire, as these practices can be another cause of the spread of the virus, says Aida Sumampong, Livestock Division Chief at the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian. (PIABohol)