BACOLOD CITY - Eight local government units in Negros Occidental are maintaining swine and goat breeding centers to serve as sources of stocks for their livestock dispersal projects.

The breeding centers are situated in the cities of Cadiz, Sagay, Kabankalan, La Carlota, and Escalante, and in the towns of Pontevedra, Calatrava and Toboso.

The provincial government, through the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian, provides LGUs planning to establish breeding centers with hybrid stocks that it buys from nucleus farms in Bago City, Isabela and Valladolid.

The breeder nucleus farm in Valladolid was registered and opened last year with a sow stock level of 200 heads from Australia.

Provincial veterinarian Renante Decena said the setting up of nucleus or multiplier farms is also a way of preventing animal illnesses, such as foot-and-mouth disease, from entering Negros Occidental.

"Animal breeders in the province no longer have to source their animal stocks from other areas because they can get these from our nucleus farms. This minimizes the entry of animal diseases into the province," Mr. Decena said.

The LGUs then maintain the stocks provided by the provincial government and these become the source for artificial insemination projects and make available genetically improved stocks to backyard raisers.

Under its Animal Genetic Improvement Program, the Negros Occidental provincial government also has an artificial insemination project for swine and other large animals.

There are now 26 AI centers for swine in the province established and managed either by the LGU or by a para-veterinarian. As of end-December 2006, 2,940 heads of sow were inseminated and these have produced 23,520 piglets.