Poultry industry losing P179M daily due to avian flu outbreak

The poultry industry is losing P179 million in daily foregone revenues due to the avian influenza outbreak in San Luis, Pampanga and the ban of shipping poultry and poultry products from Luzon, a farmers group said Wednesday.

"Mga P179 million per day, buong poultry," Rosendo So, chairman of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG), said on the sidelines of a press conference in Quezon City.

The industry has lost P895 million since the outbreak was officially revealed late last week.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Friday reported an outbreak of the avian influenza type A subtype H5 in a poultry farm in Barangay San Agustin in San Luis, Pampanga.

The DA ordered the Bureau of Animal Industry to cull all farm birds within a 1-kilometer quarantine zone.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol also banned all shipments of poultry and poultry products outside from Luzon to other parts of the country.

So argued that poultry farmers outside the 7-km radius should be able to freely move their products and cater to the markets in the Visayas and Mindanao. They need to generate revenue, he said.

"'Yung sa San Luis naman, kasi doon lang ang outbreak. Ginawa na 'yung 1-kilometer culling, tapos another 7 kilometers na quarantine. Dapat outside doon, dapat pwede magbenta," he said.

"Kasi ang nangyayari, hindi pwedeng dalhin sa Mindanao. Dapat pwedeng dalhin sa Visayas at Mindanao, kasi malayo naman sa (quarantine) area 'yung source," he added.

Also, the United Broilers Raisers Association (UBRA) said the government should allow poultry and poultry products to be shipped outside of Luzon.

"Dapat all the poultry products outside that zone should be free to move," UBRA president Elias Jose Inciong said. — VDS, GMA News