DA holds bird flu training

The Department of Agriculture yesterday held the "Project Briefing and Second Level Trainer's Training in Avian Population Survey in the Philippines" at the Cebu Grand Hotel.

The project was a collaborative effort of the DA agencies and the local government units under its Avian Influenza Preparedness Program, which aims to prevent the outbreak of the disease in the country.

The project, which runs from April 24 to October 31, would gather basic information on poultry by the Livestock Development Council, Avian Influenza Task Force under the Bureau of Animal Industry, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, DA Regional Field Units and the LGUs.

Three levels of training would be conducted before the actual survey. The first level was conducted last May 26 and was participated in by the project team from LDC, BAI and BAS.

The first level trainees acted as the trainers in the ongoing second level training in the regional field units. The training, which started last May 31, would end on June 16.

The participants of the second level training, which was held yesterday for Region VII, were be the technical staff, field coordinators and supervisors. The third level training, on the other hand, will be participated by the field data collectors.

A key informant who has knowledge on poultry population or industry situation in the barangay will be selected to answer a questionnaire formulated by the project's heads.

After the mobilization and the survey proper, the validation and processing of the data collected would follow. The data processing will be divided into two stages: the manual coding and editing, and the electronic data processing.

After processing, the data would be validated at the provincial, regional, and national levels in order to make sure the results are acceptable, reliable and usable.

The trainers said that in regions where the surveys were already conducted, only data processing and validation are going to be done.

Region VII had already conducted its survey in 2001 and has submitted the results in January. However, the trainers said it would be better to re-conduct the survey every six months.

Out of the project results, programs and policies will be formed in order to further solidify the country's defense against the bird flu.

The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, better known as the bird flu, is a disease that affects multiple internal organs and could kill 90 to 100 percent of poultry within 48 hours.

To date, 49 countries are already affected by the disease. Singapore and the Philippines are the only bird flu-free countries in Southeast Asia. - Noreen B. Napoles