Pig farmers are pushing for affordable vaccines against ASF

PIG COMPANIES are calling for the African swine fever (ASF) vaccine.ffaffordably priced to minimize impact on production costs.

“That is what we are asking the Department of Agriculture (DA). If there is an approved vaccine, we hope the price is not too high,” Chester Warren Y. Tan, chairman of the National Federation of Hog Farmers, Inc., told reporters on Wednesday.

The DA will carry out a limited rollout of the ASF vaccine procured from Vietnam this quarter, focusing mainly on red zones, or areas with active infections, and pink zones, or areas near active areas. A commercial rollout will follow, with orficial prices are yet to be announced.

It had also procured 10,000 doses of the vaccine for emergency inoculation of pigs following an outbreak in Batangas.

“We hope it will be affordable as it will be used not only by commercial farms, but also by medium, small-scale and even backyard farmers,” Mr Tan added.

He said the price of the vaccine should be between P20 and P100, which is the vaccine cost that pig farmers are used to paying.

“At this point we have nothing yet on how much the net price of this vaccine will be,” he added.

Mr Tan said a vaccine with P400 per dose will have a major impact on farmers’ costs.

“This will also not be beneficial for the consumer. As we have said, if the vaccine is cheaper, at least the costs saved by producers will go to consumers,” he added.

Last year, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) said the ASF vaccine could be priced at P400 to P600 per dose.

The public prosecutor has allocated 350 million euros for the trialfiCient to finance approximately 600,000 bottles.

According to the BAI, as of August 8, 62 municipalities in 22 provinces had active cases of ASF. — Adrian H. Halili