Bulacan governor allays fears of bird flu outbreak

MALOLOS CITY – Gov. Josefina dela Cruz assured the public yesterday that there is no cause for alarm regarding the bird flu strain detected by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) in Calumpit town last week.

"The case is isolated and there is no outbreak, so we don’t have to panic," the governor said in a statement released yesterday.

Following this assurance, the provincial government has created the provincial avian influenza task force which will focus on the implementation of the emergency control measures to prevent the spread of the flu strain and its possible mutation into a high risk pathogenic strain

Dela Cruz said the task force has already implemented a three-kilometer quarantine zone to cover 12 barangays in Calumpit, five in Pulilan, two in Plaridel and three in Apalit, Pampanga.

The movement and sales of live poultry within the three-kilometer radius from the affected farm has been banned for one week or until findings from Australian laboratories are final.

The province’s officials have also temporarily prohibited the holding of cockfights within the quarantine zone.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) ruled out that chickens are affected by the bird flu, hence the public may still include in their regular meal chicken meat and egg and balut from ducks for as long as they are properly prepared and cooked.

The DOH also said that blood samples will be collected from the animal handlers in a farm in Calumpit, where a low-pathogen strain of avian influenza was detected earlier.

Dela Cruz said she is thankful for the early detection of the case and hopes that with the immediate implementation of control measures, it would not adversely affect the province’s poultry industry.

Gloria Carillo, provincial agriculturist, in coordination with BAI and DOH, has also met with the municipalities directly affected by the three-kilometer quarantine zone to synchronize the preventive measures being implemented by the provincial task force.

"We do not want to become the next China, Vietnam, Thailand or Japan, wherein a number of lives were taken by the spread of bird flu, so we have to unite and immediately implement all the preventive measures to stop its possible spread," the governor said.

The first case of avian influenza in the country detected by the BAI among healthy ducks in a small farm in Calumpit, Bulacan is a low-risk flu strain, according to the DOH. They assured that the risk of the strain to human health is almost negligible. — With Sheila Crisostomo