ILOILO CITY, April 30 -- The provincial government aims to improve the hog inventory in Iloilo with its sentinelling program poised to take off anytime soon in its 15 municipalities covering 1,139 farmers.

"The 15 municipalities have already submitted their initial number of raisers. We are now validating on the ground if they have passed our guidelines for the sentineling," Provincial Veterinarian Dr. Darel Tabuada said in an interview on Tuesday.

He said almost 90 percent of the list submitted by the local government units passed, especially in Oton, where the first case of African swine fever (ASF) was detected last year.

The provincial government has allocated PHP13.67 million for the sentinelling program. The funds will be downloa...