BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The vaccination of hogs versus cholera promises to stop the death of pigs in a province that has an industry valued at billions of pesos and now threatened by cholera and African Swine Fever.
Animal doctor Placida Lemana who heads the Provincial Veterinary Office, told DNX Capitol is readying the distribution of vaccines for backyard hog raisers after their office has established through research that the lack of vaccination for hog cholera was the cause for hog death in recent months.
Lemana added the P6″ billion swine industry has already lost around 16,000 heads valued at millions of pesos, with most of the fatalities occurung in the Fourth District, a political subdivision composed of farming areas like the cities of Bago and La Carlota, and the towns of Valladolid, San Enrique, and Pontevedra.
These areas are serviced by the Bago River Irrigation System and where hograisers are disposing dead hogs by either throwing the carcasses into rivers or on irrigation canals.
She said field diagnoses and necropsy conducted on pig carcasses show most of the pig fatalities were not vaccinated for hog cholera, a fatal failure of backyard raisers hurrying to sell piglets.
Lemana explained sows and piglets should be vaccinated at least a month before the piglets are sold but the step is often overlooked by raisers to save on time and cost.
