Courtesy of Bureau of Customs

MANILA - Meat products from China seized at the Manila port in December tested positive for African swine fever (ASF), the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said Saturday.

The shipment, consigned to Dynamic M Intl Trading Inc., contained food items such as dumplings, pork-chicken balls and roasted chicken wings.

The BOC said the container arrived in the country on Dec. 11, 2019 and was put under an alert order for suspicion of containing misdeclared items.

Upon inspection and laboratory test from the Veterinary Quarantine Services, the pork-celery dumplings showed presence of the virus, the agency added.

ASF is highly contagious among pigs and nearly 100 percent fatal but does not affect humans.

"Since the threat of the ASF was raised by the Department of Agriculture, Customs has always been proactive in preventing the entry of pork products in the country," Manila International Container Port (MICP) district collector Guillermo Pedro Francia IV said in a statement.

MICP has ordered an inter-agency team to immediately dispose the products to curb the spread of the disease.

The BOC also said the seized items were not covered by a sanitary permit from the Bureau of Animal Industry.

The shipment violated Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016.

The Philippines has banned the entry of pork from countries affected with the hog disease including China.

