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Morning depopulation of 2nd batch of pigs delayed


MANILA, Philippines - Local authorities in Bulacan decided to cancel a scheduled depopulation of another batch of pigs from an infected farm in Pandi town on Monday morning, after experiencing delays the day before. Dr. Eric Tayag, head of the Health department’s National Epidemiology Center, said their team did not push through with the second installment culling - that would have started at 5 a.m. Monday – because he had to call regroup his team. Tayag said after experiencing delays Sunday afternoon, he said his team had to devise a more expedient manner of killing off the pigs to meet their one-week deadline. The 56-man team was targeting to depopulate 500 pigs on the culling’s first day Sunday. Instead, the group only managed to exterminate 442 hogs after some of the five captive bolts used in stunning the pigs malfunctioned. Left with no other choice, the team decided to just use 32-cal pistols. "Kailangan po sa lalong madaling panahon at kailangan maintindihan na maliban sa depopulation palalawigin pa ang pagmomonitor sa ibang babuyan [We need to address this the soonest time possible and we need to expand our monitoring of the farm]," Tayag said. "Kailangan mabilis dahil ngayon ang panahon umuulan ulan, ayaw na naming abutan ito ng ulan bagaman tag araw ito [We need to finish this off because sometimes it rains]," he added. Aside from health workers and policemen, animal welfare advocates and representatives from the World Health Organization were also invited over to oversee the depopulation. Representatives from the Philippine Animal Welfare Society agreed to the use of cal-32 pistol in place of the captive pistols, saying it would still inflict as little pain as possible to the pigs. But PAWS officials appealed to the government and to the public to attend to the starving pigs - which had not eaten in the last two days – by sending out feeds. Aside from pig feeds, the depopulating team appealed to nearby residents to also contribute pieces of wood that could be used as fuel in burning the hogs. Depopulation was to resume p.m. Monday, and government health authorities are first burning uninfected pigs and putting infected ones at the end of the queue because blood sampled have yet to be extracted from them for further study. After being stunned, the pigs are carried from the farm to the pits through vans. Once inside the 8-by-30-foot pits, the pigs are killed and burned to ashes. Tayag assured that the depopulation would cause no harm to the health of the residents and to the ground water table of the area. He said that an inspection of the water system beneath the farm would be inspected to ensure water is safe in the village. - GMANews.TV
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