Steps taken to protect RP eagle from bird flu

DAVAO CITY — Measures are in place at the Philippine Eagle Center in Calinan district here to ensure that the country’s national bird is protected from the dreaded avian influenza virus.

The 8.4-hectare Malagos Center, which lies at the foot of Mt. Apo, is home to 39 Philippine eagles bred in captivity, as well as a number of other birds, mammals and reptiles and a vast assemblage of flora, typical of a tropical rainforest.

The center has become a favorite tourism destination in this part of the country.

Authorities have placed the population of the Philippine eagle at a little over 500 pairs, most of them in the forests of Mindanao, Samar, Leyte and parts of Northern Luzon.

Two other Philippine eagles are kept at the University of the Philippines campus in Los Baños, Laguna.

"We have implemented the usual prevention protocols for the eagles," said Dennis Salvador, executive director of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, a non-profit organization which has been running the Malagos Center since the 1980s.

For one, Salvador said some bird keepers at the Malagos Center cannot go to aviaries other than those they are assigned to.

"And the usual cleaning up and disenfecting before and after entering the aviaries is a must among the staff and the bird keepers," he told The STAR.

Bird keepers are also prohibited from entering the Malagos facility after they visit a poultry farm.

As far as visitors to the Malagos Center are concerned, Salvador said the aviaries have been designed to prevent people from getting too near the birds.

"So we already have a natural barrier there. Visitors cannot really get near the birds. In that way, the spread of bird flu to humans is very remote in the center," he said.

Salvador brushed aside fears that migratory birds would bring avian flu to the giant raptors and other birds in the center.

"As far as we know, no migratory birds pass through the Malagos area," he said.

According to Salvador, the real threat comes from smuggled wildlife and not so much from migratory birds. — Edith Regalado