Blood samples taken from pigs in a southern province of the Philippines, the world’s 10th-largest pork consumer, have tested positive for African swine fever, the Philippine Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
It was the first reported case of African swine fever in Davao Occidental province and elsewhere in Mindanao, the southern island of the Philippines.
Philippine Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has ordered regional department officials to restrict the movements of animals in that part of the archipelago, the department said in a statement.
The Philippines, also the world’s seventh-biggest pork importer, reported its first African swine fever outbreak in September last year in some backyard farms near the capital, Manila.
The disease quickly spread to other parts of the main island of Luzon, including Manila, prompting some central and southern provinces to ban pork and pork-based products from disease-hit areas.
Pork smuggled from China, where millions of pigs have been culled because of the disease, could be behind the outbreak in the Philippines, Dar said.
Although the blood samples from pigs in Davao Occidental had already tested positive for African swine fever, further tests were to be undertaken by the Bureau of Animal Industry for confirmation.
The department said that the initial tests covered blood samples from more than a dozen villages in the province.
The provincial government has already imposed a “complete, but temporary, lockdown,” prohibiting the transport of pigs and pork products from and into Davao Occidental, it said.
“Backyard pig farmers in the area practice group rearing of hogs, from different owners, most [of them without] proper housing provisions nor biosecurity practices,” the department said.
There is also no regular vaccination, vitamin supplementation and deworming of pigs in the province, and household butchering is common, especially with animals exhibiting weakness or disease, it said.
About 1,000 pigs in Davao Occidental have been culled amid the outbreak, local media reported, citing information from the provincial government.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2