Pangasinan bars poultry entry amid bird flu cases in nearby provinces

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LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Philippines — The provincial government of Pangasinan has banned the entry of quails and ducks due to bird flu infections affecting poultry farms in the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga.

Gov. Amado Espino III ordered ducks and quails from other areas be barred from getting into their localities from Feb. 25 to March 31, citing the confirmatory test results at the Bureau of Animal Industry’s Animal Disease Diagnosis and Reference Laboratory that the highly pathogenic avian influenza has been detected in Bulacan and Pampanga.

The bureau’s findings were posted on the website of the Department of Agriculture on Feb. 22.

“Following the said reported incidents of confirmed cases of bird flu, there is an urgent need to prohibit the entry of all quails and ducks in the province of Pangasinan, to safeguard its poultry industry as well as protect the general public from the ill effects of the disease,” Espino said in his order released on Friday.

Pangasinan is a key duck producer in the Ilocos region, accounting for 77 percent of the region’s duck production in 2019, according to records from the Philippine Statistics Office.

Pangasinan veterinarians have put up quarantine checkpoints at all possible entry points of trucks carrying quail and ducks from all regions, including Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway “and other strategic road lines,” according to the governor.

At the borders, poultry farmers traveling with stocks of chicken, turkey, geese, and other domestic fowl must present a certification that these birds come from farms that are free from bird flu.

—YOLANDA SOTELO 

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