The Department of Agriculture believed the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak in the Philippines have originated from smuggled pork products from China.
This is what DAR Secretary William Dar suspected when smuggled meat products with ASF from China were seized last month.
In a news conference in Quezon City, DAR said the refrigerated container vans with imported meat and other meat products from China had ASF.
It is said that when this commodity entered the Port of Manila last month, it was declared to contain tomato paste and vermicelli. However, it included dim sum, dumplings, peking ducks, fresh frozen duck deserts, pork meat, and pork products, marinated chicken wings, minced vegetables with meat, egg, and noodles.
Then ASF outbreaks can also come from swill feeds or “kaning baboy,” or food leftovers owners feed their pigs.
“Ang mga food waste nila ay itinapon sa Rodriguez Rizal at may nagkolekta ng swill feeds at pinakain sa baboy, doon nagsimula,” DAR added.
(They throw their food waste at Rodriguez Rizal, and some collected the swill feeds and fed them to the pigs, that’s where it started.)
