DA to invite international health groups to assess risk on Ebola virus

The Department of Agriculture (DA) will invite international health organizations to conduct a risk assessment on the presence of the Ebola-Reston virus in the country. The move is in line with the government’s policy of transparency and the concerted effort to engage global authorities in containing the infection which, so far, has been detected only in a few hogs in certain parts of Luzon.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the risk assessment would determine the extent of the potential risk or threat of the Ebola-Reston virus to animals and humans.

At the same time, Yap said the DA is preparing a support program to assist hog producers in farms where the Ebola-Reston virus had been detected and to provide incentives to other growers to participate in the government program to stamp out the virus.

The planned support program would include the purchase of additional laboratory kits needed to check the presence of the virus among local swine, as well as assistance to livestock growers whose infected hogs would be culled or destroyed by a Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI)-led, quick-response government team to prevent the spread of the Ebola-Reston virus among animals.

The re-emergence of the Ebola-Reston virus, which has been detected in just two hog farms, is considered by international and local health authorities as only an animal health issue because the Reston strain “does not pose a significant public health risk.”

The Ebola-Reston strain was first detected in Philippine macaques (short-tailed monkeys) exported to the United States in 1989 and 1996.

This is the first time it has been detected in hogs, thus the focus is on determining how the Ebola-Reston strain virus jumped to hogs.

“While we are currently carrying out a similar effort, we are opening our doors to scrutiny by independent, globally recognized health organizations to show that the Philippines is a responsible member of the international community and that it continues to act in the spirit of transparency and cooperation,” Yap said.

The World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) or the Office Internationale des Epizooties (OIE) or World Animal Health Organization could conduct the risk assessment, according to BAI director Davinio Catbagan.

The DA and Department of Health (DOH), along with the international health institutions, have pointed out that the Ebola-Reston virus has shown no evidence so far of being harmful to humans since its discovery in 1989.

This particular strain of the virus was first discovered in crab-eating macaques or monkeys that the Laguna-based Ferlite Farms had exported to the US-based Hazleton Laboratories in Reston, Virginia.

The Philippine Ebola virus was identified as the Reston strain.

Officials of the WHO, OIE and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) who attended a marathon consultative meeting hosted by the DA at its Quezon City office last Wednesday told over 20 industry leaders the latest resurfacing of the Ebola-Reston virus in the Philippines is just an animal health issue and is not considered a significant public health concern at this time.

The Ebola-Reston virus is entirely different from the three other Ebola sub-types, which are all potentially fatal to humans.

Unlike the Zaire, Ivory Coast and Sudan strains, the Reston strain has not been found to be fatal to humans.

The presence of the Ebola-Reston virus in domestic swine was discovered this year when the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) tested tissue samples that the PCSP, in coordination with BAI, sent last August to check for the presence of the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PPRSV) and determine its strain.

Meanwhile, an official of DOH reiterated yesterday that contingency measures are now in place to prevent the spread of the Ebola-Reston virus.s

DOH chief epidemiologist Dr. Eric Tayag said in a radio interview that the safety net is composed of three layers – the first layer is to quarantine the pigs in affected farms, which has already been undertaken by the DA since the virus was detected.

Last week, the DOH and the DA revealed that some hogs in poultry farms in Bulacan, Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija have tested positive for Ebola-Reston.

The DOH managed to trace 42 animal handlers and butchers who came in close contacts with the pigs. The blood samples taken from them were examined and they tested negative for the virus.

Tayag said the second layer is the safety certification by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) of hogs being sold in all markets.

He urged consumers to buy meat that has the NMIS seal.

The third strategy requires public compliance – cooking meat “very well.”

For unknown reasons, Ebola-Reston is endemic in the Philippines. It has low pathogenicity or ability to cause human illness, unlike the other three much-feared Ebola strains – the Sudan, Zaire and Ivory Coast.

DOH records showed that in 1989, 1992 and 1996, the Ebola-Reston virus had already infected some poultry farms in the Philippines.

Some 25 individuals have acquired the virus but they did not get ill.