Pampanga governor orders tighter bird flu watch

The bird flu virus threatening the Pampanga poultry industry has been traced back to a duck farm in Bulacan, according to Agriculture Secretary William Dar. (Stock photo by RICHARD REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines — The Pampanga provincial government will set up control points within a radius of 1 kilometer from the poultry farms that have tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 strain, Gov. Dennis Pineda said on Wednesday.

Pineda had instructed local officials to tighten the monitoring of the poultry industry a day after Agriculture Secretary William Dar confirmed the detection of the virus in four villages in the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan.

Dar, in a statement released by the Department of Agriculture (DA), said the virus was traced to a duck farm at Barangka village in Baliuag town, Bulacan; and quail farms at the villages of Dalayap and Mangga in Candaba town, and San Antonio in Mexico town, both in Pampanga, from Jan. 6 to Feb. 11.

Call for protection

But Dar said they carried out all the necessary protocols to immediately contain the virus.

The DA, in a statement, said it “acted swiftly” to contain the virus that hit poultry farms in Central Luzon, noting that the risk of catching the virus was “very low.”

According to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), around 50,000 birds were culled in these areas to prevent the spread of the virus.

Pineda said the control points would be supervised by personnel from the BAI and local police.

Pampanga’s poultry industry incurred P198 million in losses from the bird flu outbreak in 2017, records from the provincial government showed.

“We need to protect our poultry sector and ensure enough poultry supply in the market,” the governor said at a briefing with local officials.

Although H5N1, which is transmissible to humans, has occurred in parts of the world since 1997, this was the first time that it was detected in the two provinces, BAI veterinary officer Dr. Glofezita Lagayan said at the same briefing.

Dr. Ida Gloria Felix, a medical officer from the Department of Health, said there was “no known transmission of the H5N1 to humans or vice versa” in the country.

The provincial task force consisting of personnel from the Provincial Veterinary Office and the BAI have carried out biosecurity and disinfection in the affected areas to control the contamination.

A 24-hour surveillance and reporting of incidents were also put in place as part of the precautionary measures.

Commercial and backyard farms need to show negative results of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests on all birds, including chickens, before these can be hauled and transported outside the confirmed infected area, according to the task force. ‘Unknown’

In its notification to the World Organization for Animal Health on Feb. 18, the Philippines reported that a total of 78,280 quails and ducks were susceptible to the bird flu virus, with 98 confirmed cases in Bulacan and Pampanga.

The source or origin of the infection was “unknown or inconclusive,” the country informed the intergovernmental organization responsible for improving animal health worldwide.

BAI Director Reildrin Morales said the agency was conducting surveillance activities on all poultry species, and that there was no reported occurrence of the disease in chickens and turkeys.

—REPORTS FROM TONETTE OREJAS AND JORDEENE B. LAGARE

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