PREVENTION
– Personnel of the Jaen Municipal Police Station sets up an animal quarantine checkpoint along the national highway in Jaen, Nueva Ecija, Friday, after the Department of Agriculture confirms reports of possible avian flu infestation in two of the town’s barangays.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) was expecting the completion of depopulation of some 500,000 chicken, quails and ducks in San Luis, Pampanga on Saturday, amid the confirmation of another bird flu outbreak in two towns of Nueva Ecija.
Citing reports from DA Regional Director Roy Abaya, Secretary Manny Piñol said a total of 214,506 chicken, ducks and quails from 29 farms inside the seven-kilometer (km) controlled radius in San Luis town were culled early Saturday.
Authorities expected that the culling of remaining 300,000 fowls will be over by end of Saturday (August 19).
Piñol said that with the completion of culling operations in San Luis, biosecurity teams can focus on the depopulation of birds in Jaen and San Isidro towns in Nueva Ecija.
Last Friday, the DA chief reported that a total of 28,000 layer chickens, 22,000 ducks, 57,000 native chickens and 200,000 quails died from the outbreak in Nueva Ecija. This is due to the proximity of the two towns from San Luis, Piñol said.
Almost 300,000 fowls are about to be culled from Nueva Ecija to contain the virus.
After culling, Piñol explained that biosecurity teams will disinfect the farms and wait out for another 21 days before fielding “sentinel birds” that will serve as observation birds to determine whether there is still avian influenza virus in the area.
If after 35 days, the sentinel birds will not show any symptoms of the bird flu virus, the Bureau of Animal Industry will declare the areas and the periphery as free of the virus.
He pointed out, however, that a 90day rest period will be observed where farmers in the one-km contained radius will not be allowed to raise chickens, ducks or quails and other feathered fowls for another 90 days.
Only when there are no other reported cases of bird flu outbreak after 21 days of the completion of the clean-up and disinfection operations in Jaen and San Isidro, Piñol said DA will lift the ban on the shipment of poultry and poultry products from Luzon to other parts of the country.