Cebu Provincial Veterinarian Mary Rose Vincoy declared Ginatilan’s African swine fever outbreak contained after 60 blood samples from the town's 12 initially unaffected barangays tested negative.
The outbreak began in September in the upland barangays of Cagsing and Calabawan, prompting movement restrictions, slaughter bans, and border controls to protect Cebu’s P20-billion hog industry.
Field teams have withdrawn following negative RT-PCR results and 14 days of surveillance, but local officials continue stricter controls on municipal slaughtering and pork transport.
GINATILAN’S African swine fever (ASF) outbreak is now considered contained after all 60 blood samples taken from pigs in the town’s 12 initially unaffected barangays tested negative, according to Cebu Provincial Veterinarian Mary Rose Vincoy.
Vincoy told SunStar Cebu on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, that the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) found no secondary infection after widening surveillance beyond the first two affected barangays.
Ginatilan, a fifth-class municipality at the southwestern tip of Cebu, has 14 barangays.
What ASF is
ASF is a highly contagious viral disease of domestic and wild pigs and its mortality rate can reach 100 percent. Infected pigs may develop fever, weakness, loss of appetite and bleeding under the skin, while some die suddenly.
The disease does not infect humans. People cannot catch it by handling infected pigs or by eating pork, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The virus spreads among pigs through direct contact with infected animals or their excretions and through ticks. It can also survive on clothing, shoes, vehicle tires and other materials, which is why authorities watch the movement of people, animals and pork products during outbreaks.
Outbreak in two upland barangays
Ginatilan recorded its first ASF cases in the upland barangays of Cagsing and Calabawan. Mayor Roy Vincent Singco confirmed the infections on Sept. 20 after testing by the Department of Agriculture (DA) 7’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.
The PVO traced the suspected source to residents of Cagsing who traveled to Tanjay City in Negros Oriental for a feast and brought home uncooked meat, Vincoy said. The tracing finding does not mean transmission through the meat was conclusively established.
The Ginatilan Municipal Government then imposed strict movement restrictions and biosecurity measures. Checkpoints were set up to restrict the movement of pigs and livestock market operations were suspended temporarily.
Slaughtering of pigs was also prohibited in the affected barangays and the entry of live swine, swine meat and pork products from Negros Oriental was banned.
How officials reached the finding
The PVO collected blood samples from pigs in the 12 other barangays to find out whether the virus had spread. The laboratory tested them using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the results came out last week.
“We waited for the results and they all came back negative. So, there is no secondary infection and we can say that it is actually contained,” Vincoy said in a mix of Cebuano and English.
No more pigs died after about a week, Vincoy said. Still, the PVO kept monitoring the two affected barangays and the rest of the municipality for the standard 14 days and waited for the remaining test results, before withdrawing its field teams.
Ginatilan continues to apply stricter controls even with the field teams gone. Slaughtering of pigs must now go through the local government and meat inspectors monitor the activity and trace the origin of pigs.
The Municipality’s aim is to limit the local slaughtering system to pigs raised within the town.
Protecting Cebu’s hog industry
Cebu’s hog industry is valued at around P20 billion, based on Philippine Statistics Authority and DA data cited by the Provincial Government. Provincial officials put its value at about P10.9 billion in 2019. The industry supports thousands of hog raisers and supplies the roasters behind Cebu’s lechon.
The Provincial Government stepped up its defenses after ASF returned to Negros Occidental in June. Gov. Pamela Baricuatro issued Executive Order (EO) 36 on June 26, directing local government units (LGUs) and agencies to activate local ASF task forces and to strengthen surveillance, biosecurity and border controls.
On July 7, she signed EO 39, which banned for 45 days the entry of live hogs and fresh and processed pork from Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and other provinces with confirmed ASF cases. The ban was later extended under EO 44.
Cebu City, which has its own veterinary office, confirmed ASF in Barangay Quiot in August and in Barangay Toong in September. Infected hogs in both areas were culled.
Vincoy said 24 LGUs in Cebu Province are now in the Recognition of Active Surveillance for ASF process, up from the initial 16 that received certification.
Negative test results alone do not give an LGU official ASF-negative status. Supporting documents must first go to the Bureau of Animal Industry in Manila for final assessment.
Certification matters to backyard hog raisers because it lets them transport and sell pigs outside their areas without separate negative tests for every shipment, cutting paperwork and costs.
Vincoy urged LGUs to keep up preventive measures through October, including surveillance and biosecurity, and to monitor backyard slaughtering and the movement of pigs and pork products. / CDF