MANILA: The Philippine hog industry is losing nearly US$20 million a month from African swine fever infections, agricultural officials said on Friday, after announcing the virus has also been detected in some processed pork products.
President Rodrigo Duterte's office issued a statement late on Thursday seeking a concerted government effort to manage, contain and control the disease that is also wreaking havoc on hog industries in China and other Asian countries. In the Philippines, also the world's seventh-biggest pork importer, the virus has hit some backyard farms in Quezon City in Metropolitan Manila and in several provinces on the main island of Luzon."There are opportunity losses for the hog industry estimated at about 1 billion pesos a month," said Noel Reyes, spokesman for the Department of Agriculture.