Bulacan, Pampanga poultry quarantine lifted

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga — The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) lifted yesterday the poultry quarantine implemented in parts of Calumpit, Pulilan and Plaridel in Bulacan and in Apalit town in Pampanga after results of studies in Australia indicated that the ducks which were found to be affected with low-pathogen Asian influenza virus were not infected with the virulent strain that have wiped out poultry in other countries.

BAI Director Dr. Jose Molina told The STAR that the ducks in a backyard farm in Barangay Pugong in Calumpit, Bulacan were indeed "exposed" to the so-called H5 strain. However, a laboratory scrunity made by experts in Australia indicated that blood samples from the ducks did not have the deadly H5-N1 strain. The findings from Australia were forwarded to the BAI last Sunday.

"We are now preparing a report on the findings for presentation to Japanese importers of poultry from the Philippines," he said, after poultry exports to Japan were stopped following the discovery ot the low-pathogen strain in ducks from Calumpit some three weeks ago.

Poultry quarantine over a three-kilometer radius from a backyard farm in Barangay Pugong in Calumpit, Bulacan where the infected ducks were uncovered was imposed a week ago. Movement of poultry was restricted in the covered areas, which included parts of Pulilan and Plaridel in Bulacan and parts of Apalit.

Despite the release of the findings from Australia, Molina saidthe government is "developing rigid bio-security measures" to prevent virulent bird flu from infecting fowls in the Philippines, which is the only country in Asia still free from the deadly avian virus strain.

He said that one of the measures is to separate ducks from poultry in farms. "The ducks should be confined," he said.

Dr. Jose Carillo, Bulacan’s chief veterinarian, also said earlier there were no indications that even the low-pathogen bird flu strain had infected chickens which were raised with the ducks in the same farm in Barangay Pugong.

"There were 230 ducks and 20 chickens in the farm. While not all of them were infected, they were all eliminated through carbon dioxide poisoning and buried about 10 feet underground in the farm which was also heavily disinfected," Carillo said.

He said that all the fowls had to be eliminated as a precautionary measure. "The low-risk H5 avian influenza virus in the ducks could mutate into H5-N1 strain which is fatal," he noted.

Carillo objected to referring to the duck infection as bird flu. "The term bird flu connotes fatal infection that could wipe out entire avian farms. Only the low-risk H5 avian influenza virus was found in the ducks which remained healthy up to the time they were eliminated," he said.

The infection in the ducks in the Calumpit farm was found out after the farm owner requested a permit from the BAI to export his balut or boiled duck egg produce.

Issuance of permits require random sampling of ducks which produced the eggs. Some of the ducks were thus found to be infected with the H5 strain.

Carillo, however, said that well-cooked balut, even from infected ducks, would be safe to eat, as the bird flu virus is readily killed by heat.