The Department of Agriculture and Bureau of Animal Industry confirmed today that Mekeni picnic hotdog, skinless longganisa, and other select meat products tested positive for African Swine Fever.
The Bureau of Animal Industry said Mekeni Food Corporation requested to conduct the two validation tests for African Swine Fever.
However, the agency revealed that other meat product samples from the US, Canada, and France tested negative for swine.
Department of Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said they first inspected larger meat manufacturing plants and were able to check 63 of 178 licensed meat manufacturing plants as of today.
“We found them compliant with regulatory standards,” Domingo said.
On October 26, Mekeni Food Corp. voluntarily pulled out all of its processed meat products in the market following the reports that some of them have ASF.
On October 24, the DA announced tocino, hotdog, and longganisa processed meat products have tested positive for African Swine Fever (ASF).
The Bureau of Animal Industry confirmed that three processed meat samples (hotdog, longganisa or Filipino-style sausage, and tocino) have ASF viral DNA. A real-time polymerase chain reaction test was used according to the clinical laboratory report dated October 15.
The following day, the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. urged (PAMPI) the Department of Agriculture to name the brand of ASF infected hotdog, longganisa, and tocino.
“Very unfair ‘pag walang brand na ime-mention kasi lahat tatamaan. Sa totoo lang hindi kami maka-respond. Wala kaming hawak [na impormasyon],” said PAMPI spokesperson Rex Agarrado.
(It is very unfair that no brand will be mentioned because it will hit everyone. We can’t respond. We do not have any [information].)
The DA initially declined to say which company or brand of processed meat was infected by ASF but ascertained that it is not a big company.
According to the World Organization for Animal Health, while ASF is contagious to pigs, it has no adverse effects on human health.
“This is to ensure that we mitigate the possibility that our products inadvertently become carriers of ASF,” Mekeni said in their statement.