Sen. Villar wants more suppliers of ASF vaccines

Senator Cynthia Villar lashed out  on  the limited supplier of vaccines against the African Swine Fever (ASF), which led to the slow inoculation of hogs and  caused huge losses for the industry and skyrocketing pork retail prices.

Sen. Villar, who heads the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food,  also urged President Marcos to declare a state of national calamity of hogs as the disease continues to spread.

Villa was angered by the absence of key officials from the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Animal Industry in the said hearing. 

She questioned why only Assistant Secretary Constante Palabrica, an official of DA for livestock for only eight months, attended the hearing, ABS CBN narrated.

“Why don’t you ask your bosses to attend> They are putting you on the spot since they don’t want to undergo questioning from us.”

She grilled the Bureau of Animal Industry on why they seemed to favor only one supplier of ASF vaccines.

The Vietnam-manufactured AVAC vaccine is the only brand that has applied for product registration in the Philippines. Its rollout started last August 30.

Villar said that the AVAC vaccine is not accepted internationally as this isn’t being used in the US.

“We have been debating about this since last year,” Villar insisted. What caused much confusion is the status of vaccine application in the country, as it was initially unclear if the AVAC vaccine is still in its clinical trial stage.