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President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered all government agencies and local government units to strictly implement and comply with the "national zoning and movement plan for African swine fever."

Administrative Order No. 22, which Duterte signed on February 5, was in relation to the Department of Agriculture's Administrative Circular No. 12 (s. 2019) on the national zoning and movement plan for the prevention and control of ASF. The DA has classified the country into various zones with respective movement protocols.

"The DA, DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) and DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) are hereby directed to monitor compliance with this Order and ensure its strict observance by all concerned government agencies, offices, instrumentalities, as well as local government units," the AO read.

The AO was issued amid the spread of ASF in Mindanao, with first confirmed cases in two towns of Davao Occidental.

The order noted that ASF, despite having no known effect to humans, is a severe and highly contagious viral disease affecting domestic and wild pigs, with a case-fatality rate approaching 100 percent, caused by a resistant virus with no developed cure to date.

The ASF is estimated to have affected more than 20 million pigs in Asia since 2018 and has caused serious economic production losses in affected countries. Celerina Monte/DMS