Philippines to send Ebola samples to Australian lab

The Philippines will send samples of the Ebola Reston virus to an Australian animal laboratory to observe the effects of the virus on hogs and establish whether hog-to-hog transmission is possible, according to the Agriculture Department.

The virus is still with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, and the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) is making arrangements to transfer the virus to Australia, said BAI Director Avinio P. Catbagan.

The BAI wants to transport the virus to the Geelong-based Australia Animal Health Laboratory in early or mid-February to start the three-to-four-month inoculation. The hogs will then be slaughtered to test the virus' effects on its organs and tissues.

Funds for the project are still under discussion, said Samuel B. Animas, chief of the Animal Health Division of the BAI.

However, Renato Eleria, chairman of the National Federation of Hog Farmers, said it is premature to discuss the project as the government is still awaiting test results from additional tissue samples recently sent to the CDC.

In October, it was reported that six out of 28 pig tissue samples taken from four different hogs in Luzon were positive of the Ebola strain.

The Agriculture Department is conducting a wider-scoped blood testing that includes 4,000 samples from the BAI database.