Need for bird flu protocols in Bacolod stressed

BACOLOD CITY —- The city council has asked the City Agriculture Office to put in place protocols in handling bird flu cases.

The council on Thursday passed the resolution authored by Councilor Sonya Verdeflor, who said the legislation aims to ensure that the city’s poultry industry will be protected from bird flu.

Verdeflor cited the two recent cases of bird flu confirmed by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) in Jaen and San Isidro towns of Nueva Ecija after a series of laboratory tests on specimens gathered from quails and layer chickens.

“It is imperative that our City Agriculture Office should be vigilant in monitoring this situation and should be prepared with the protocols in the handling of live chickens, ducks, dressed chicken and eggs in cases of bird flu to protect our poultry farmers and the poultry industry in Bacolod City,” Verdeflor said.

With the bird flu infection in several Luzon towns, chicken and other fowl within the one-kilometer radius have been culled to stop the virus from spreading.

Poultry farmers in the area were not allowed to raise chickens and ducks until after a 90-day period following international disease control protocols.

On Tuesday, the Department of Agriculture (DA) lifted the ban on the shipment of poultry products from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao on certain conditions.

According to the DA, products must not be sourced within the seven-kilometer quarantine radius of bird flu-affected areas in San Luis, Pampanga, and in the towns of Jaen and San Isidro.

In Negros Occidental, the Provincial Veterinary Office earlier this week conducted an orientation for para-veterinarians (paravets) as part of the readiness plan against the avian flu virus.

Dr. Ryan Janoya, head of Animal Health and Meat Inspection Services Inspection Division, said the participants were briefed on preventing the virus from infecting poultry products. (PNA)