New swine flu in China very low risk — BAI exec Domingo

The new type of swine flu that is being monitored in China has a very low risk, an official of the Bureau of Animal Industry said in an interview on GMA News’ Unang Balita on Thursday.

BAI officer-in-charge Director Ronnie Domingo said the ongoing response in China involving the new swine flu named G4 was a surveillance program and not a control program.

“‘Yung risk ay napakaliit. Tapos wala namang nakita na sakit na dinulot sa baboy, sa tao. May kaunti sila na isolation na ginawa sa mga may sakit pero hindi lamang naman po H1N1,” Domingo said.

US science journal PNAS published a study that G4, which was descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009, possesses all essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans.

Domingo said he never encountered a report claiming that the new swine flu is deadly.

“Nakitaan po nila ito na kamukha noong mga naunang viruses na nakita sa mga pandemya noon. Kinuha po nila ‘yung samples nila sa around 38,000 na normal na baboy,” he said.

“Kaya sinabi nila may potential na mag-cause ng pandemya,” he added but noting that China has a half billion hogs.

Domingo said the program took samples from 300 workers and 10 of them were found to have antibodies, noting that China’s population is 1.39 billion.

The BAI chief underscored that the gathering of samples was for the sake of surveillance, given that viruses evolve over time. He added that the surveillance program in China also monitors other viruses like H3N2 and H9N2.

“Hindi po tayo dapat mangamba dahil ito ay warning pa lamang,” he said.

Asked if the G4 scare was being used to affect the price of pork in the Philippines, Domingo said that some concerned sectors were calling him out for taking interviews about G4.

He said the sectors argued that they are still trying to recover from the impact of African swine fever (ASF) in the industry and yet a new disease is being reported.

Domingo said the supply of pork in the country is still limited due to the depopulation of 299,000 hogs as well as many raisers prematurely harvest their products to avoid contamination.

“Nabawasan ‘yung supply natin lalo sa Region III, IV-A, at Metro Manila,” he said.

Domingo said traders import their supply from distant areas like Region I and Region II. Due to this, they have to increase the price of their products for the additional cost in transportation. — RSJ, GMA News