MANILA (BLOOMBERG) – The Philippines confirmed that African swine fever caused the deaths of hundreds of pigs in towns near its capital, becoming the latest Asian country to be affected by the highly contagious viral disease.

“We are still waiting on whether the virus affecting the hog areas in the country is weak or virulent,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in a briefing Monday (Sept 9).

He said 14 out of 20 blood samples sent to the UK tested positive for the virus.

President Rodrigo Duterte approved the formation of a task force that will include the police and the military to prevent an outbreak, Mr Dar said.

The virus potentially came from hotels, restaurants or even overseas Filipino workers bringing pork products from affected countries, he said.

The Agriculture Department on Aug 19 opened a probe following increased swine deaths from backyard raisers and ordered that all pigs within one kilometre radius of the infected farms be culled.

Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia on Aug 6 said the possible entry of the deadly swine disease that’s spreading across Asia is among the risks to inflation this year. The virus is not known to harm humans.

“We are not in an epidemic stage yet”, Mr Dar said. There are new incident areas from initially three locations in Rizal and Bulacan provinces, he said. “We have yet to see how fast the virus can spread.”

Livestock accounts for 17 per cent of Philippine agricultural output. Philippine hog production totalled more than 2.3 million metric tons (2,300kg) based on live weight in 2018, valued at 242 billion pesos (S$6.4 billion).

As of July 1, the nation’s hog inventory was estimated at 12.7 million heads, little has changed from a year ago.

The South-east Asian nation in July banned pork imports from Germany, citing concerns about food safety in one of the world’s major shippers.

The Philippines is the fourth biggest destination for European pork this year.

In June, the African swine fever gene was detected by authorities in confiscated canned goods from Hong Kong.

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