DTI to assess impact of bird flu on chicken supply

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is in the process of determining the impact on poultry suppliers and retailers following the recent bird flu discovery in Pampanga, a top official said, voicing a mix of concern and hope that this would not have a severe impact on the market.

Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol announced on Friday that hundreds of thousands of chickens in a town in Pampanga had caught the avian flu, marking the first time that the disease occurred in the country.

Calling it a “critical problem,” the agriculture chief said that 200,000 birds would be culled as authorities try to establish how the flu entered the Philippines, hinting that it may either have been brought by migratory birds visiting the Candaba swamp or carried by contaminated and smuggled Peking ducks.

For its part, the DTI has tasked its concerned offices to work with the Department of Agriculture (DA) in determining the impact to the local market.

Trade Undersecretary Teodoro Pascua, who is in charge of the department’s consumer protection group, told the Inquirer that the data would show how this would affect the supply chain, given that poultry has become a “staple food.”