Bird flu breaks out in Pampanga — DA's Piñol

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on Friday revealed a bird flu outbreak from a poultry farm in Barangay San Agustin, San Luis, Pampanga.

Piñol told reporters the outbreak of avian influenza Type A subtype H5 happened in a quail farm before spreading to poultry farms.

“There were indications of the disease as early as April. The first reported outbreak is in a quail farm, where there are ducks underneath. The ducks were the likely carriers of the avian flu virus since they have contact with migratory birds,” the Cabinet official said.

“Then it spread to poultry farms, where around 37,000 heads have died,” Piñol noted.

Once the bird flu outbreak was confirmed, Piñol said he issued an order to quarantine the affected areas, including the culling of all poultry and related birds within a one-kilometer radius.

“There were also many fighting cocks in the area. But we really have to do it, because we don’t want the disease to spread,” he said.

Piñol estimated about 400,000 birds within the quarantine zone will be culled to stop the disease from spreading to nearby poultry farms

A highly contagious viral disease, avian influenza affects several species of birds consumed by humans – chicken, turkey, quail and guinea fowl among others – as well as pet and wild birds.

“So far, there was no reported bird-to-human contamination,” Piñol noted. He said the current outbreak involved the low pathogenic bird flu category.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) spreads rapidly and its accompanying disease may result in high mortality rates of up to 100 percent within 48 hours.

On the other hand, the low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) may cause mild disease that can go undetected with no symptoms in some bird species.

The Bureau of Animal Industry has setup a seven-kilometer danger zone in San Luis to keep poultry raisers, and especially gaming fowl raisers, from smuggling contaminated birds out of the area.

“There will be blockades. We will also deploy sprayers to the affected poultry farms,” Piñol said.

“This is the problem in commercial poultry. When the New Castle disease broke out, it was wasn't immediately reported as the raisers kept it to themselves,” he said.

The Cabinet official said he will order on Friday a ban on transporting poultry and other poultry products from Luzon to other parts of the country to prevent an inter-island transfer of the disease.

“Ang maganda lang sa Pilipinas, we are an archipelagic country. In addition to the quarantine area to be put up, our waters protect us. But I am going to issue an order banning the transport of fowls from Luzon to other parts of the country,” he said.

The government is now preparing to transfer production areas to Mindanao to avoid a possible supply chain disruption, and is also searching for sources of chicks and hatching eggs for poultry growers down south.

“This will obviously affect the food supply chain, especially now that we are nearing December. One of our courses of action is concentrating the production in Mindanao to augment possible shortfalls,” Piñol said. — VDS/KVD, GMA News