| 15 - Pangasinan continues to be FMD-free for 4 years now
The people of Pangasinan can now heave a sigh of relief as the province remained among the few provinces in Luzon free from foot and mouth disease (FMD) for four years now.
This was assured by Dr. Eric Jose Perez, officer-in-charge of the Provincial Veterinarian Office, who said this status was achieved as the provincial government has been strictly implementing measures to prevent the disease from infecting local hogs.
On the other hand, the province is also continuously safe from the dreaded hog cholera which raged for weeks in the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga before it was placed under control.
Among the precautionary measures undertaken by PVO to make Pangasinan FMD-free, said Perez, include massive ring vaccination of hogs and cattle as well as distribution of disinfectant called “soda ash” to various slaughterhouses, livestock markets and to private livestock owners.
A massive information drive was also conducted at the grassroot level to enable the province to maintain its status a one the FMD-free zones in the country.
A Public Awareness Campaign on FMD was also conducted by the Department of AgricultureRegional Field Unit 1 (DA-RFU 1), National Foot and Mouth Disease Task Force and Bureau of Animal Industry at the Livestock Auction Market in Urdaneta City.
At the same time, province-wide surveillance and installation of animal quarantine and checkpoints are also undertaken to prevent the movement of infected animals.
The checkpoints are located in Umingan, Bakit-bakit, Rosales; Carmen, Rosales; Bayambang, Mangatarem, Infanta as well as San Fabian.
Corollary to this, Provincial Board Member Danilo C. Uy, chairman of the committee on agriculture and himself a hog farm owner, urged all livestock owners to help the government in strengthening its strategies in the fight against the dreaded animal disease.
He stressed that the increased productivity of the local livestock industry is one of the priority programs of the current provincial administration of Gov. Amado Espino Jr.
FMD, which usually occurs during rainy season, is an acute, highly communicable rhinovirus-caused disease that mainly infects cloven-footed animals such as cow, carabao, sheep, goat and swine.
It was learned that meat products derived from infected animals pose serious problems to public health. (PNA)
-- Scanned for viruses and and believed to be clean. |
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