ASF pushing Visayan warty pigs to brink of extinction

The country's biodiversity remains at risk as African swine fever (ASF) continues to threaten endangered pig species like the Visayan warty pigs and Philippine warty pigs, pushing them further to the brink of extinction.

- By JASPER EMMANUEL ARCALAS

The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) said ASF, a fatal hog disease but not harmful to humans, poses a "serious threat" to biodiversity, citing the detection of the disease in the Visayan warty pig, a critically endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The status of the Visayan warty pig was assessed in June 2016 with the results published in 2017, according to the IUCN database. IUCN documents showed that the country's current population of Visayan warty pigs is undergoing "drastic" population decline, estimated at more than 80 percent over a period of three generations (about 21 years).