EXEC SAYS PH TO BE FREE OF BIRD FLU BEFORE CHRISTMAS

After a bird flu outbreak hit farms in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija earlier this year, newly appointed director for the Bureau of Animal Industry Ronnie Domingo said the bureau will be ready to declare the Philippines “bird flu-free” before Christmas.

Domingo told reporters on the sidelines of the Karne, Isda Supply Suporta sa Masa at Ekonomiya launch that the last day of the agency’s cleaning and disinfection operations in both provinces will end by Dec. 20.

By then, all interventions by government agencies will have been completed, including the fielding of at least 600 sentinel birds in the quarantined areas to test if the birds will survive the farms affected by the virus within a 35-day period.

The sentinel birds were released last month following a 21-day incubation period, as observed by international standards.

“Biologically, the incubation of the virus is one day to two weeks. In that period, there were no new cases of the virus that hit our sentinel birds, so we are done with that problem,” he said.

The Department of Agriculture is set to submit a report to the World Organization for Animal Health for validation of the country’s bird flu-free status.

“What our trading partners are looking for is how we addressed the problem, so wewill report on that,” he added.