February 24, 2009

The Philippine government has ordered a massacre of 6,000 pigs in a hog farm in Bulacan province, north of the country, where the deadly Ebola Reston virus was first detected.

 

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said test results prove that there has been an ongoing viral transmission in the province but the quarantine has also been lifted in Pangasinan, where the outbreak also occurred.

 

Yap refused to say the government's assistance to the farm, but "suffice it to say that it will cover the economic costs or loss, but we'll have to make sure that it will not be abused."

 

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said international experts advised depopulation of pigs prevent the spread of the Ebola Reston virus to more farms and pig-to-human transmission of the virus.

 

Animal Bureau chief Davinio Catbagan said a sixth human had tested positive for Ebola Reston antibodies based on recent tests conducted in US laboratories.

 

Duque said the additional positive human sample was traced to a slaughterhouse worker in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija - one of the provinces first reported to have ebola outbreak.

 

Duque said the worker does not recall any direct contact with sick pigs but remembers having flu-like illness in the past 12 months.

 

He said however that there is no evidence that that the flu-like symptoms can be attributed to ERV infection as no one else of the 25 tested from the slaughterhouse was infected.

 

To date, Duque tells that all "close contacts of humans with positive antibodies who were tested have remained antibody-free, signifying the absence of illness in affected humans that can lead to possible human-to-human transmission."

 

Ebola Reston, he assures, poses a low risk to human health "at this time."

 

Experts said the monitoring of farms in Bulacan would be sustained to prevent another Ebola Reston outbreak.

 

The Agriculture Department is to expand the coverage to other farms in other areas, while the Health Department is to carry out surveillance in those farms or areas where the virus has been detected.

 

Catbagan said scientific studies would continue to determine the source of Ebola in pigs, and to characterize pig-to-pig and pig-to-human transmissions.