|
THE domestic swine industry should have gone very far
in development if the country had all the modern technology that
neighboring Asian countries have, the National Federation of Hog
Farmers Inc. said on Monday.
Dr. Cesar Ballesteros, director
of the federation, said the Philippines is now left behind by
Thailand in hog raising because of the lack of modern equipment that
could help identify and cure new diseases.
“The Philippines is the better
producer of pigs in Asia, but we don’t have the modern equipment
that’s why we are far left behind,” Ballesteros said in a press
briefing.
Ballesteros, also a veterinarian,
said some of the experts of swine industry in Thailand earned their
degree from the University of the Philippines.
The federation submitted to
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap recommendations to resolve issues
affecting the industry.
“The establishment of
fully-equipped, state-of-the-art animal disease diagnostic
laboratories in key regions of the country is necessary to ensure
the prompt and adequate diagnosis of current and emerging animal
diseases,” the federation said in a letter to Yap.
The letter also stressed that
government’s “inability to identify this virus puts the industry
at a continuing risk of possible recurrence of this porcine epidemic
that nearly caused the decimation of the hog population of Nueva
Ecija and Bulacan and to lesser extent, Batangas, and Tarlac.
“The virus strain that hit the
hog industry late last year is yet to be fully identified as
laboratory samples are yet to be sent to the US National Veterinary
Services Laboratory in Plum Island, New York,” the letter said.
The federation also asked Yap to
impose a ban on all imports of pork meat coming from China, Vietnam
and Cambodia because the disease that hit the local hog farms is
similar to the characteristics to those that also hit the three
countries.
Federation Chairman Gabriel Uy
said the aforementioned issues were among those raised during the
17th Hog Farmers’ Convention held from July 3 to 4 at the Subic
Bay Convention Center.
--Ira Karen Apanay
|
