The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) said it has stepped up efforts to control if not fully eradicate the African swine fever (ASF) and avian influenza that have been affecting the country’s livestock and poultry sectors while ensuring stability of the supply of meat in the country.
In a virtual briefing, BAI director Ronnie Domingo said as of July 31, 9 regions were affected with ASF involving 262 municipalities and cities in 28 provinces which led to the culling of a total of 316,637 hogs.
Domingo said the implementation of various quarantine regulations in relation to COVID-19 also helped in slowing down the spread of ASF as its infection rate fell to 20 positive pigs per million compared to the 63 positive pigs per million before March.
He added the country has around 12.7 million hogs with only 2.6 percent of it affected by ASF.
Domingo said BAI has not recorded another incident of avian influenza infection since last month.
If maintained for another 90 days, the Philippines can request the World Organization for Animal Health to declare the country free from bird flu.
Domingo also defended the DA’s move to ban all chicken imports from Brazil following China’s lab results which showed imported poultry meat from the Latin American country tested positive for COVID-19.
“We import 300 million kilograms (kg) of chicken from Brazil, about 15 percent of our total imports. However, we source chicken from 14 different countries and besides, we have a surplus of 150 days supply for domestic chicken,” Domingo said.
Meanwhile, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed prices of meat are stable.
As of August 11, the prevailing retail price of pork kasim was at P240 per kg; pork liempo at P270 per kg and whole chicken at P140 per kg compared to a week ago’s per kg. rates at P240, P300 and P130, respectively.
These levels are little changed from July 11 per kg prices P260 for pork kasim; P300 for pork liempo and P160 for whole chicken.
This month’s prices were higher from a year ago when pork kasim was at P220, pork liempo at P245 and whole chicken at P160.
