SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — The municipalities of Sibalom and San Jose de Buenavista in Antique have downgraded to pink zone (buffer) from red (infected) under the African swine fever (ASF) category while two more have applied for reclassification.

Sibalom was reclassified into a pink zone on August 5 as no ASF case was recorded for a year, according to Antique Provincial Veterinary (ProVet) Public Health Division chief, Dr. Marco Rafael Ardamil, in an interview Friday.

The last confirmed ASF case in Sibalom was in Barangay Pangpang on July 26, 2023.

San Jose de Buenavista also received the approval for reclassification in July.

"With the reclassification into the pink zone of the municipality of San Jose de Buenavista, there will be 139 hog raisers who will be given an initial one piglet each by the DA (Department of Agriculture) for sentineling by September," he said.

The DA, ProVet and the Municipal Agriculture Office conducted validation of the readiness of their hog farms for the sentineling.

Sentineling will determine if the ASF virus is still present after applying biosecurity measures.

The two other towns that hope to progress from red to pink are Hamtic and Belison.

Hamtic recorded its last case on Oct. 19, 2023, and Belison on Nov. 9, 2023.

"We are looking forward that sooner our province would already be declared as ASF-free once the two remaining towns of Hamtic and Belison would already be reclassified as pink zones," Ardamil said.

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