The swine flu scare has caused the decline in pork prices in the country, the Department of Agriculture (DA) explained Tuesday.

According to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, pork prices were slashed by as much as P10 a kilo in most supermarkets as consumers begin to think twice about buying pork, following reports of the so-called swine influenza virus discovered in Mexico this week.

In some areas in Metro Manila, vendors said they are forced to bring down pork prices by as much as P20 a kilo due to reduced demand. In Commonwealth Market in Quezon City for instance, prices of liempo (pork belly) dropped to P160 from P180 per kilo on Tuesday.

Given this, Yap assured the public that the swine flu virus is not transmitted by eating pork, citing reports from the Animal World Health Organization. Rather, it is passed on from pig to human (or human to human) via aerial droplets.

Still, the DA has decided to retain its ban on pork products from areas where swine flu cases are reported (Mexico and some parts of the United States and Canada) as a precautionary measure.

The DA said it will monitor developments on the spread of the virus so they can change the coverage of the pork ban accordingly. Meanwhile, Yap said the importation of pork from swine flu free zones in the US and Canada will continue.

The Philippines imports some 50,000 metric tons of pork from the US and Canada. But because of the ban, the country will begin to source some of its pork meat domestically, particularly in Mindanao.

Irrelevant?

However, the National Federation of Hog Farmers said the drop in sales in pork meat has nothing to do with the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and some parts of the US.

In an earlier interview, group president Eliseo Yu, the slump in pork sales is part of an annual market cycle in the country.

"During this period of time, the sales of pork usually declines. It's a cycle every year during school vacation," he told ABS-CBN morning show "Umagang Kay Ganda."

Meanwhile, Yu assured the consumers that hog raisers administer flu vaccines in piggery farms regularly to prevent the spread of swine flu in the country. With a report from Zen Hernandez, ABS-CBN News