PH not letting guard down vs bird flu outbreak

MANILA,  Philippines  —The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) said it already released all quarantined fighting cocks originating from the United States as they had tested negative for bird flu.

However, it is verifying reports that the game fowls taken to its office earlier had come from California, where there is an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

“We cannot take information like this for granted, regardless of the source. We have to follow quarantine protocols,” BAI Director Enrico Miguel Capulong said in a statement.

BAI said all 378 game fowls that had been placed under temporary quarantine previously were immediately released after testing negative for avian influenza.

READ: DA delays release of fighting cocks from US as precaution vs. bird flu

“BAI conducted random sampling of 30 birds and subjected them to avian influenza tests to ensure the country’s biosecurity,” Capulong said.

These birds came from the Port of Atlanta in Georgia and were brought by a courier on behalf of several Filipino breeders of fighting cocks.

The courier claimed to have secured all necessary permits for the shipment, including those from BAI and certification from American authorities that the birds had tested negative for bird flu.

Precautionary measure

The agency delayed the release of hundreds of game fowls sourced from the US as part of a standard precautionary measure to avoid the spread of bird flu.

“An outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain could cause substantial damage to the Philippines’ multi-billion-peso poultry industry, cause thousands of job losses, and undermine the country’s food security,” it said.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said last week that they were “being extra careful and vigilant” in protecting the domestic poultry industry.

“The spread of avian influenza from imported birds could immensely damage our poultry sector and could wipe out billions of pesos in investments, endanger thousands of jobs, and potentially undermine our food security,” Tiu Laurel said.

Before this, the Department of Agriculture temporarily banned the entry of domesticated and wild birds, including poultry products and eggs from California and Ohio in January this year due to the rapid spread of avian influenza.

Biosecurity

The two US states informed the World Organization for Animal Health of several outbreaks of HPAI affecting domestic birds in November last year.

In 2016, US and Philippine veterinary authorities agreed that a state-wide ban could only be imposed if there were three or more counties affected with avian influenza in one state.

Meanwhile, Capulong said the BAI was drafting an amended protocol to facilitate cargo clearance processing so that time-consuming tasks such as cargo verification could be carried out at the source country, especially for live animals.

“Meanwhile, importers of the breeding stocks shall observe the 30-day quarantine for the birds in close coordination with the quarantine officer,” it added.