July 9, 2007

 

Philippines imposes ban on poultry imports from Togo

 

 

The Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) has momentarily barred birds and poultry products from Togo following confirmation on the presence of avian influenza (AI) or bird flu in the western African country.

 

The outbreak was reported by the government of Togo to the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE) ban on June 22 from a poultry farm in Laos district.

 

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the embargo is to ensure protection of human health as well as of that of the poultry industry in the Philippines, which has remained bird flu free ever since the H5N1 strain of this virus re-occurred in Asia in 2003.

 

The Philippines, Singapore and Brunei are the only bird flu-free countries in Southeast Asia.

 

Yap said he has ordered DA quarantine officers and inspectors in all major airports and seaports to stop and confiscate all shipments of live birds, poultry and poultry products including day-old chicks, eggs and semen into the country coming from Togo.

 

The DA chief also ordered the immediate suspension of the issuance of Veterinary Quarantine Clearances (VQCs) to all imports covering these products from Togo.

 

DA also imposed a similar ban on all live bird and poultry imports from Korea, the United Kingdom and Japan after the presence of the AI virus was also detected in those countries. The ban on such imports from Japan was already lifted last May following an evaluation made by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showing that the risk of AI contamination from bird and poultry products originating from that country was negligible.

 

As of June 29, the World Health Organization (WHO) about 191 out of 317 AI-infected people have died since the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus resurfaced in Southeast Asia in 2003 and then spread across the rest of the continent, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

 

WHO experts have expressed concern over the possibility that every additional human infection gives the virus a greater opportunity to mutate into a deadlier strain that will make it easier for AI to jump from fowls to humans and then from person to person, which could lead to a widespread epidemic.

 

Two such pandemics during the past century had killed millions of people.

 

Meanwhile, the Philippines' first diagnostic facility built by the DA against bird flu outbreak and other animal-borne diseases, has so far tested 6,680 samples of birds and fowl in various areas of Luzon, which have all tested negative for the presence of this dreaded bird flu virus.

 

Yap said the fully equipped Regional Avian Influenza Diagnostic Laboratory (RAIDL) in San Fernando, Pampanga has conducted the tests to demonstrate DA's continuing efforts to keep the Philippines free of the AI virus that has so far killed close to 200 people and millions of chickens across the globe.

 

Inaugurated last February 13, the country's first RAIDL -- built through a US$340,000 grant from the New Zealand Aid and Development Agency and a US$50,000 counterpart fund from the Philippine government is said to fully comply with international standards for a biosafety laboratory as well as conducting various tests to swiftly detect the presence of the AI virus.

 

The RAIDL have so far gathered a total of 6,680 bird samples (including chicken, ducks, geese, turkeys, quails and pigeons) from the provinces of Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and Zambales and have tested negative for the AI virus.

 

The trial was technically assisted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the DA's Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).

 

Yap said the RAIDL facility was built in Pampanga because Central Luzon is one of the high-risk areas for the AI virus, given the large concentrations of both commercial and backyard poultry farms and transient migratory birds in the region.

 

Bulacan and Pampanga, being the major tributaries of the Candaba Swamp, were the main focus of the field surveillance, training and conduct of various influenza related studies conducted by the DA. The swamp is recognized as a high-risk area because of the possible close interaction of domestic poultry with the wild birds.