GMA orders DA to tighten security vs bird flu virus

President Arroyo has ordered the Department of Agriculture (DA) to strengthen measures to protect human health and the country’s P60-billion poultry industry from the bird flu virus (AI).

“The country has remained free of bird flu ever since the H5N1 strain of this virus first resurfaced in Asia in 2003,” Mrs. Arroyo said in a statement released by the Palace.

“I have directed the DA to remain vigilant in monitoring the entry and importation of poultry particularly from countries with reported incidents of bird flu,” she said.

The DA has recently slapped a temporary ban on all imports of domestic and wild birds, along with poultry and its products from Denmark, following reports of AI or bird flu virus in that country.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the ban covers all “domestic and wild birds and their products, including day-old chicks, eggs and semen.”

He issued the ban after the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) or the Animal Health Organization confirmed that low pathogenic AI has been detected in a poultry farm in Stenstrup, Svendborg Kommune, South in Denmark, which affected geese, chickens, ducks and mallards.

Yap directed DA quarantine officers and inspectors at all major airports and seaports to stop and confiscate all incoming shipments of live birds, poultry and poultry products coming from Denmark.

He also ordered the immediate suspension of the issuance of veterinary quarantine clearances (VQCs) to all imports covering these products from Denmark.

Besides Denmark, the Philippines also currently bans imports of birds, poultry and its products, from among others, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Poland and the western African country of Benin, to protect human health and the poultry industry in the Philippines.