Dr. Divino Catbagan, BAI director, told The STAR that the Philippine College of Swine Practitioners (PCSP) is now examining the case of a farm in Sto. Rosario, Batangas for the development of an experimental vaccine against the disease, which was first reported to have killed scores of piglets in several towns in Bulacan earlier this year.
"It is possible that the ailment killing the piglets in Batangas could have come from Bulacan through contacts with farm workers or vehicles from the affected areas," he said.
Catbagan lamented that BAI does not have an idea of how widespread the fatal disease has become due to the refusal of pig-raisers to allow his agency into their farms.
He said the hog-raisers are wary of quarantine measures that could be imposed on them, thus preventing them from marketing their hogs.
"In Batangas, only one hog-raiser in Sto. Rosario volunteered for the examination of his farm," he said.
Earlier, Dr. Felipe Bartolome, of the Bulacan veterinary office, attributed the deaths of piglets in the province to "porcine epidemic diarrhea" or PED.
He said the disease has affected pig farms in the towns of Pandi, Sta. Maria, Marilao, San Jose, Baliuag, and Pulilan.
Catbagan, however, cited further studies showing that the culprit was "multi-factoral."
"The cause was PED in combination with four or five other ailments, such as hog cholera, pseudo rabies, and rota virus," he said.
Catbagan appealed to hog-raisers to be transparent and report the real situation in their farms to enable the BAI to import vaccines from South Korea.
While the intestines of piglets, which have died of the disease, could be fed to pregnant sows to develop immunity in the unborn piglets, this has been found to be only 40 to 50 percent effective, Catbagan said.
Because of the situation, BAI is considering the importation of vaccines, specifically against PED.
"Europe does not manufacture the vaccine anymore since it has eradicated PED. The ailment has also been eradicated in Korea but the vaccine is still manufactured there so we can import it," he said.
Despite the lack of figures, Catbagan said BAI "is in control of the situation."
He, however, warned that if hog-raisers continue to refuse to cooperate with BAI, drastic measures have to be carried out to prevent the spread of the disease.
"In Quezon, local government officials have already blocked the entry of pigs coming from Bulacan. We can ask local government units to enforce the same measure if things get worse," he said.
In the meantime, BAI gets its information on the situation from the PCSP since most of its members serve as veterinarians of big swine farms.
Earlier, Dr. Jose Carillo, chief of the veterinary disease prevention and regulatory division of the Bulacan provincial government, said at least five medium-sized swine farms in the province have been completely quarantined.
Carillo said newly born piglets seem to be more susceptible to the ailment up to the weaning period or about 30 to 40 days after birth.
Noting that Bulacan provides about 60 percent of Metro Manila’s daily pork supply, or about 3,000 heads per day, Carillo expressed apprehension that if the disease spreads in the province, there could be a pork shortage in the metropolis.