DAVAO CITY — The City Veterinarians Office here assured the consumers that pork products sold in Davao City public market are free from African Swine Fever-Free (ASF-Free), this is the assurance of the City Veterinarian’s Office.
Dr. Cerelyn Pinili said there is massive monitoring in the communities and public slaughterhouses to ensure that every carcass is ASF-Free.
Safeguarding meat in the public market involves a series of tests and monitoring has been conducted near borders of Davao del Sur, North Cotabato and in Davao del Norte where cases of positive ASF are reported.
“In Davao market, all meat and its byproducts are safe for consumption, “Pinili emphasized.
The city vet has taken samples of the chorizo and tocino products from Agdao, Toril, Mintal, Calinan, Panacan, and Tibungco Public Markets. All have tested negative of the ASF.
“We assure that processed pork meat sold in these public markets are safe to eat since they are ASF-free,” she said on Wednesday.
“We are conducting regular monitoring and sampling in the public markets to ensure that the meat and its byproducts are safe,” she added.
Aside from these, her office is monitoring the boundaries to ensure that Davao hog raisers are raising ASF-Free hogs.
Given the ASF challenge, Pinili said, the hog raisers and meat vendors are also undergoing series of seminars on how to protect their farm from contamination, while the vendors are also taught how to ensure that meat and its byproducts are taken from ASF-Free pigpens.
The veterinarian’s office issues a certificate to hog raisers who passed the ASF test, and, the lists are provided to the dealers to inform them about the source, to ensure that every carcass is safe for the consumers.
CVO also remains on alert on hog farms in Marilog and Calinan District since there is an outbreak of ASF in neighboring areas of Magpet and Arakan.
As it is now, the CVO is up in the ground and in the market to protect the hog raisers and the public consumer in general.-Newsline.ph
