DAVAO CITY, Feb. 14 (PIA) - The depopulation of hogs in three African Swine Fever-infected towns in Davao Occidental is expected to be completed over the weekend, as the Department of Agriculture in the region has already accomplished 92 per cent as of this writing.

Out of the 15,475 pigs to be culled from Don Marcelino, Malita and Jose Abad Santos in Davao Occidental and including Davao City, a total of 14,097 hogs have been depopulated since the start of culling on February 5, revealed DA-XI regional information officer Noel Provido.

He said the culling in these affected areas may possibly be finished this week.

In a DA-XI briefer as of Thursday (Feb. 13), the 2,343 hogs from Barangays Dominga and Lamanan in Davao City were completely eradicated.

Disinfection and decontamination in the culled areas will be done for 30 days, and implementation of veterinary quarantine checkpoints in main checkpoints and barangay checkpoints has been beefed up.

In the severely-hit town in Don Marcelino, ten barangays (Nueva Villa, Dalupan, North Lamidan, Calian, Mabuhay, Linadasan, Lanao, Baluntaya, West Lamidan and Kiobog) were 100% done with the culling as of yesterday.

A total of 7,429 hogs from 15 barangays in said municipality were targeted to be culled.

In Malita, 4,332 pigs are expected to be depopulated from four barangays. As of Thursday, three affected barangays (Kidalapong, Fishing Village and Poblacion) have completed the depopulation process.

Also as of February 13, 63% or 784 out of the 1,249 pigs have been culled from five barangays (Mangile, Buguis, Culaman, Caburan Small and Caburan Big) in Jose Abad Santos.

In Sulop town in Davao del Sur, activities such as orientation with barangay captains on ASF and profiling of hog raisers in the municipality have commenced, immediately after DA-XI's confirmation on Wednesday that Barangays Palili and Laperas tested positive of the ASF disease.

The affected barangays have elevated its implementation of the quarantine checkpoints and have been preparing for the depopulation activities.

Meanwhile, Regional Veterinary Quarantine Officer Maria Teresa Bacayo assured that its monitoring system has been strengthened in Davao Region's airports and seaports since the ASF outbreak in Luzon.

During today's maiden Kapihan sa PIA at the Royal Mandaya Hotel in Davao City, Bacayo raised the importance of also strengthening the animal health system at the barangay and municipality levels to prevent the entry and spread of animal diseases such as the ASF. (PIA-XI/Carina L. Cayon)