DA officials told to seek military help for poultry clearing

Infected chickens in Pampanga —TONETTE OREJAS

Malacañang on Monday called on agriculture officials to enlist military personnel to speed up clearing operations against the avian flu virus to ease the burden on the poultry industry.

Officials earlier said the lack of personnel and dry soil pits had delayed the culling of infected chickens.

Some of the workers have reportedly refused to undertake the task despite a daily allowance of P700, and did not want to be vaccinated or wear protective suits.

“Despite their lack of personnel, we urge [the Department of Agriculture] and [the Bureau of Animal Industry] to expedite the various clearing [operations] to minimize the losses and hasten the recovery of the poultry industry,” presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a press briefing.

Abella said the Armed Forces of the Philippines could be called in to help if necessary.

“Perhaps, if needed, the AFP can field more men to cull more birds. This is, after all, no small calamity,” he said.

He said Malacañang sympathized with farmers and with the various sectors in the poultry industry burdened by the measures that have to be taken to deal with the country’s first avian flu outbreak.

The outbreak has prompted consumers to shun poultry products and raised fears of price increases.

Malacañang has sought to ease the public’s fears by saying that the avian flu strain found in Pampanga is not harmful to humans.

The Department of Health (DOH) said it was monitoring the condition of two poultry workers who had manifested flu-like symptoms.

Dr. Eric Tayag, DOH spokesperson, said the two “suspect cases” were under observation and isolated in an undisclosed hospital.

“Out of the 20 people interviewed by our team from different farms, two of them have symptoms; one had cough, the other had fever,” Tayag said.

“We’re verifying if their flu was caused by bird flu. Or it could also be that such suspect cases could be just influenza. We’re still unsure if those are cases of bird flu because this is currently the season of influenza,” he said. —With reports from Tina G. Santos and Jerome Aning