MANILA, Philippines—An Agriculture official on Thursday assured the public that local pork is safe to eat, despite the presence of the Ebola reston virus strain in four hog farms in Luzon.

In an interview, Bureau of Animal Director Davinio Catbagan said the occurrence of the strain remains predominantly an animal health issue and is thus, of "negligible public health importance."

On Wednesday night, Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap and Health Secretary Francisco Duque announced that the low pathogenic strain of the Ebola reston virus—found in two commercial farms in Pandi, Bulacan and Manaoag, Pangasinan, and in two backyard farms in Cabanatuan and Talavera, Nueva Ecija—was "harmless" to human health.

"Even if you are exposed to this virus, you will not get sick. This is not like the Ebola hemorrhagic virus which had hit Africa years ago," officials stressed.

This is the first time, however, that the Ebola reston strain was found in pigs.

As a precautionary measure, the Department of Agriculture has put under quarantine the two commercial farms and has been monitoring the two backyard farms since the Ebola virus was discovered last October 30.

The DA has also temporarily suspended all planned pork exports until the issue of the Ebola reston virus has been resolved. The local hog sector had been planning to ship frozen pork initially to Singapore this year, the first time that the country will do so.

Catbagan disclosed that a frozen pork shipment from General Santos City was supposed to leave the country last December 10, but was suspended.

In a separate phone interview Thursday, Yap said the DA will have to conduct separate tests before the General Santos pork will be allowed for export.

"We will freeze the shipment temporarily to test it. If the pork tested negative for ebola, we will let it go," Yap explained, noting earlier that the temporary suspension was meant to establish that the Philippines is a responsible exporter.

Yap had expressed confidence that the occurrence of the ebola strain virus has remained isolated in the four farms in Luzon, adding that since 1995, hog producers have stopped moving pigs from Luzon to provinces in Visayas and Mindanao.

The Ebola reston virus was first discovered in 1989 in the monkeys (crab-eating macaques) that the Hazleton Laboratories in Reston, Virginia had been importing from the Ferlite Farms in Laguna.

Officials, however, assured that of the 20 human handlers of the monkeys tested positive for Ebola reston, only one had manifested flu-like symptoms but had since fully recovered.

"What is clear is that Ebola reston does not cause death in humans, there is no clear evidence that this can be transferred to a person and cause a casualty," Yap stressed.

The presence of the Ebola reston virus in domestic swine was again recently discovered when the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) was testing tissue samples that the Philippine College of Swine Practitioners sent last August to detect the presence of the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PPRSV).

Of the 28 pig tissue samples taken from four different locations in four different periods-May, June 4 and 26 and September 2007-only six samples were tested positive of ebola. The final report reached the BAI only last October 30.

Since then, Catbagan said the DA and the BAI had been conducting a series of samplings and tests to discover if the ebola virus strain is still present among the farms.

"The problem with the backyard farms, they have already sold the pigs so what we did was to take blood samples of the human handlers—those working from the hog farms and also those from slaughterhouses who hold the bloody carcasses of the pigs, and they all tested negative," Catbagan assured.

He noted, however, that these backyard farms are still being monitored.

As for the two commercial farms in Manaoag and Pandi, Catbagan said these were put under strict quarantine, which means they will not be able to sell or move their pigs until further notice.

From around 7,000 pigs in these areas, the BAI had collected 94 blood and tissue samples and had sent these to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. Based on preliminary results as of 6 p.m. last December 10, all samples were tested negative.

Tests done by the RITM had confirmed that the disease discovered in the affected hog farms cannot be transferred from pigs to humans.

These findings of the non-pathogenocity of the Ebola reston virus were also confirmed by experts from the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Virginia Department of Health.

But as a precautionary measure, Catbagan said the government will further test all the pigs in the commercial farms and those tested positive for the virus will be killed and disposed of.

"The fact that all the pigs tested negative means that it didn't spread among hog farms so categorically, pork is safe to eat," he added.

Yap and Duque had said they would seek support and technical assistance from WHO, FAO and the Paris based Animal Health Organization in clearing these farms and help eradicate the virus in the country.

As a precaution, Yap and Duque had called on the public to report sick animals to their City and Provincial Veterinarians and to refrain from buying meats from stalls without National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS)
certifications.

Food handlers and the public are advised to follow five food safety rules namely: to keep clean; separate raw and cooked food; cook meat thoroughly; keep food at safe temperature and use safe water and select fresh food.

According to WHO, pork that is properly handled, washed and cooked is safe for human consumption because heat from adequate cooking kills viruses, including Ebola reston.

In the meantime, the two government agencies will continue to monitor and survey the affected areas until it has been fully ensured that the areas or farms infected are already free of the virus.

Yap has ordered the BAI, together with the local government units (LGUs), to continually test pigs in their localities. Hogs in farms that have tested positive for the virus will be quarantined and will undergo a comprehensive inventory.

All pigs found to be infected will be destroyed and disposed of properly, Yap said.

The government, he noted, will provide assistance to quarantined farms by providing them feeds and replacement stocks once the farms have been cleared.