RP bans importation of cattle, other animals due to foot-and-mouth disease scare

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) has temporarily banned the importation of cattle and other animals susceptible to the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) from China and the entry of birds and poultry, including their products, from Belgium and the Canadian province of British Columbia.

Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras, who signed the directives imposing the ban, said the DA is temporarily  banning the entry of cattle and other animals susceptible to FMD after the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) or World Animal Health Organization confirmed outbreaks of the disease in the Chinese provinces of Hubei and Xinjiang.

The ban includes the immediate suspension of the processing, evaluation of the application and issuance of Veterinary Quarantine Clearance (VQC) to import the specified  animals from China .

DA veterinary quarantine officers and inspectors have been ordered to stop and confiscate all such commodities and by-products being imported into the country originating from China.

The DA is also imposing  a temporary ban on the entry of birds, poultry and their products from British Columbia and Belgium following official reports from the OIE confirming outbreaks of the disease in the two countries.

According to the OIE, it has confirmed a bird flu outbreak in a turkey farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia and two such occurrences in a geese breeding farm in Buggenhout, East Flanders and in a farm for ornamental birds and poultry in Bocholt , Limburg, both in Belgium .

The emergency measures are necessary to protect human health and the poultry industry in the Philippines which has remained free of bird flu since the H5N1 strain struck Asia six years ago.

The Philippines along with Brunei and Singapore are the only AI-free countries in Southeast Asia .

The DA order directs quarantine officers and inspectors of the DA at all major airports and seaports to stop and confiscate all shipments of live birds, poultry and poultry products  originating from Belgium and British Columbia.

The DA directive also orders the immediate suspension of the processing, evaluation of the application and issuance of VQCs to all imports covering the specified products from the banned areas.       

As of Jan. 21 this year, a total of 51 countries with reported outbreaks of AI in their respective domestic poultry sectors are temporarily banned from shipping their poultry and poultry products into the country.

The World Health Organization has reported that as of mid-February this year, there were 408 laboratory-confirmed cases of the bird flu and 254 fatalities from the disease since the H5N1 strain of the virus broke out in Southeast Asia in 2003 and then spread across the rest of the continent, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The DA is now setting up Community-Based Early Warning Systems (CBEWS) in selected barangays identified as high risk in contracting the Avian Influenza (AI) virus.

The CBEWs will help orient Barangay AI Task Forces on the bird flu and the reporting process for AI suspects (both in poultry and humans).

The CBEWs will also monitor and report on possible smuggling of poultry and exotic birds in their localities.

Under its Avian Influenza Protection Program (AIPP), the DA is also implementing an Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training (AVET) Program to strengthen the capacity of the field veterinary services, especially at the local level, in designing and managing disease surveillance, conducting outbreak investigation and effective outbreak containment measures.

Besides these measures, 20 critical areas are under surveillance especially during the bird migration season of October to February.

So far, a total of 46,214 samples from birds have been tested by the DA since year 2005 and were all found to be negative for the Highly Pathogenic AI (HPAI)  agent.

The government now has four avian flu testing facilities located in Zamboanga City, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu City and San Fernando in Pampanga.

The laboratories in Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga and Cebu complement the ongoing work being done at the Regional Avian Influenza Diagnostic Laboratory (RAIDL), in San Fernando, Pampanga, which is the country’s first diagnostic facility meant to promptly detect the AI virus.