THE PHILIPPINES - Provincial Veterinarian Romeo Magdato foresaw a high demand of poultry and meat products this year based on the demand/consumption reported last year.
Magdato in an interview assured the public that pork coming from Antique is certified free of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and safe from Ebola Reston virus despite detection of said virus in few hogs in two farms in Bulacan and Pangasinan late last year,
"We continue to be supplier of poultry and meat products to Aklan particularly Boracay, Iloilo and some parts of Metro Manila because of the high demand from these areas", the source said.
The implementation of Piglet Restocking program of the Department of Agriculture has helped a lot in providing supply of pork not just for local consumption but also of other areas.
PROVET further reported that supply of poultry and livestock were affected by the devastation of typhoon Frank last year where hundred of stocks were killed/lost.
Magdato encouraged poultry and livestock raisers even in backyards to double the production since the demand are increasing and prices are on the uptrend where hog cost P85-P88 a kilo in current livestock market prices.
Meanwhile, the government has formed a local team to assist a visiting group of International human and animal health experts carry out a 10-day epidemiological investigation into the re-emergence of the Ebola Reston virus that was detected in Bulacan and Pangasinan said the Department of Agriculture (DA).
DA Secretary Arthur Yap has welcomed the arrival of the team of international animal and human health experts, saying the exhaustive tests it will carry out would help the government craft a national surveillance plan along with prevention and control programs to get rid of the Reston virus, PIA report said.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Phil. Hog Producers Blame Retailers for High Costs
THE PHILIPPINES - The Christmas holidays are over but retail prices of pork have increased by more than six per cent to as much as P180 per kilo from a week-ago and retailers and hog raisers are pointing fingers at each other.
A price monitoring report by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics of the Department of Agriculture showed that Metro Manila retail prices of pork liempo went up to P180 per kilo as of 8 January from P170 per kilo of 3 January while pork ham also increased by P10 per kilo to P170 from P160 per kilo.
According to Manila Bulletin Online, hog raisers have blamed the high cost of pork meats on the retailers saying that farm gate prices have not increased as much since December last year.
"Absolutely there is no reason why retail prices should go up that much because the average farm gate is only P105 per kilo," said Albert Lim, president of the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc.
Even at farm gate prices of P140 to P150 per kilo, Lim said that retail prices should have increased only to P175 per kilo. At the current farmgate rates, retail prices should have been lower.
According to Lim, farm gate prices have not moved much since December when demand was up and farm gate prices were at P100 to P102 and now P105.
Lim also noted that increase in farm gate prices was limited to P2 only per kilo despite the fact that prices of corn, which is converted into feed hogs, are now hitting P24 per kilo.
There could also be a shortage in local corn production because of the poor harvest, he said.
In December, corn prices were at P12 to P13 per kilo but prices shoot up to P18 per kilo before Christmas.
Lim said that as prices of corn go up, the backyard hog raisers are the first to be affected.
On the other hand, traders said there is really a shortage in hogs because of the "ebola" disease and the high price of corn.
A price monitoring report by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics of the Department of Agriculture showed that Metro Manila retail prices of pork liempo went up to P180 per kilo as of 8 January from P170 per kilo of 3 January while pork ham also increased by P10 per kilo to P170 from P160 per kilo.
According to Manila Bulletin Online, hog raisers have blamed the high cost of pork meats on the retailers saying that farm gate prices have not increased as much since December last year.
"Absolutely there is no reason why retail prices should go up that much because the average farm gate is only P105 per kilo," said Albert Lim, president of the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc.
Even at farm gate prices of P140 to P150 per kilo, Lim said that retail prices should have increased only to P175 per kilo. At the current farmgate rates, retail prices should have been lower.
According to Lim, farm gate prices have not moved much since December when demand was up and farm gate prices were at P100 to P102 and now P105.
Lim also noted that increase in farm gate prices was limited to P2 only per kilo despite the fact that prices of corn, which is converted into feed hogs, are now hitting P24 per kilo.
There could also be a shortage in local corn production because of the poor harvest, he said.
In December, corn prices were at P12 to P13 per kilo but prices shoot up to P18 per kilo before Christmas.
Lim said that as prices of corn go up, the backyard hog raisers are the first to be affected.
On the other hand, traders said there is really a shortage in hogs because of the "ebola" disease and the high price of corn.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Tissue samples for Ebola Reston brought to local, US disease control bodies
Business World
Vol. XXII, No. 118
Friday, January 16, 2009 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
ANIMAL AND public health experts are awaiting the results of tests by the Health department and the United States’ Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) on the emergence of the Ebola Reston virus in local hogs, an official of the 22-man mission said.
"[Blood and tissue] samples are being analyzed at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine [of the Health department] and at the CDC in US. We are still waiting for the results probably in one or two weeks," Mario Musa, communications officer of the Crisis Management Center of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said in an interview Wednesday night.
The samples, taken from hog farms in the towns of Pandi in Bulacan province and Manaoag in Pangasinan province where tissue samples of infected hogs suspectedly came from, were shipped to the US on Tuesday, Mr. Musa said.
Ebola Reston, a sub-type of the virulent Ebola in Africa, was first discovered in the Philippines in 1989 among crab-eating macaques being exported to the Hazleton Laboratories in Reston, Virginia.
Late in October, the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory of the US Department of Agriculture reported to the Agriculture department that six out of 28 pig tissue samples taken from four different hog farms in May, June and September were positive for the virus.
Experts from the World Health Organization, World Organization for Animal Health, FAO, and Agriculture and Health departments are expected to end the 10-day joint mission today.
The team will discuss with the Health and Agriculture department the recommendation, funding and future missions when the report is finished, Mr. Musa said.
Ebola reston, which is only found in the Philippines, had been confined to monkeys and the latest detection is the first time it has jumped species. — Neil Jerome C. Morales
Vol. XXII, No. 118
Friday, January 16, 2009 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
ANIMAL AND public health experts are awaiting the results of tests by the Health department and the United States’ Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) on the emergence of the Ebola Reston virus in local hogs, an official of the 22-man mission said.
"[Blood and tissue] samples are being analyzed at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine [of the Health department] and at the CDC in US. We are still waiting for the results probably in one or two weeks," Mario Musa, communications officer of the Crisis Management Center of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said in an interview Wednesday night.
The samples, taken from hog farms in the towns of Pandi in Bulacan province and Manaoag in Pangasinan province where tissue samples of infected hogs suspectedly came from, were shipped to the US on Tuesday, Mr. Musa said.
Ebola Reston, a sub-type of the virulent Ebola in Africa, was first discovered in the Philippines in 1989 among crab-eating macaques being exported to the Hazleton Laboratories in Reston, Virginia.
Late in October, the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory of the US Department of Agriculture reported to the Agriculture department that six out of 28 pig tissue samples taken from four different hog farms in May, June and September were positive for the virus.
Experts from the World Health Organization, World Organization for Animal Health, FAO, and Agriculture and Health departments are expected to end the 10-day joint mission today.
The team will discuss with the Health and Agriculture department the recommendation, funding and future missions when the report is finished, Mr. Musa said.
Ebola reston, which is only found in the Philippines, had been confined to monkeys and the latest detection is the first time it has jumped species. — Neil Jerome C. Morales
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