6,000 hogs culled to contain Ebola

MANILA, Philippines - Workers in protective suits have begun culling 6,000 pigs at a northern Philippine farm to prevent the spread of the Ebola Reston virus that has infected some of the animals.     

Health officials say six farm and slaughterhouse workers in Bulacan had developed antibodies to the virus after contact with infected pigs but none of them have had any serious illness in the last 12 months.     

Provincial health officer Dr. Jocelyn Gomez said yesterday it would take about a week for all the farm hogs to be slaughtered at a rate of 1,000 a day.

Plagued for five years now by pervasive stench from piggeries in Porac town wafting over this city’s heavily populated downtown, local civil society leaders expressed yesterday concern for the health of local folk amid the Ebola Reston virus confirmed in Bulacan.

This, amid reports of ailments now being blamed by local folk on the piggeries whose stench has been penetrating their homes at certain times of the day for some five years now.

The broad-based coalition group Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement urged yesterday the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture to extend their Ebola Reston surveillance operations to huge piggeries in Porac.   

PGKM chairman Ruperto Cruz noted that residents of this city, including special children in a school run by Catholic nuns have complained of skin ailments and respiratory diseases they have blamed on the foul smelling air regularly wafting from Porac since five years ago.

“Government needs to assure the people of Porac, as well as adjacent Angeles City, that the piggeries that have long been afflicting them with the stench and causing various ailments are not breeding grounds of the Ebola Reston virus,” the PGKM said in a statement yesterday. 

Cruz said that in Porac’s Barangay Sta. Cruz alone, hosts five big piggeries, including Marson Farm Select Farm, Greenfield Farm, Logo Farm, and Sta. Cruz Farm which, he said, were earlier the subject of protest actions by citizens and concerned non-government organizations for the foul smell they emitted.

Bird flu

In Bulacan, lessons learned in the procedures in preventing the spread of Ebola Reston virus on pigs will be replicated in case of bird flu infection, a government veterinarian said.

Dr. Romeo Manalili, the regional veterinarian in Central Luzon told The STAR that they are carefully monitoring the procedures in containing ebola found in pigs in hog farm in Pandi town.

He said that they will use the same procedure in case of possible bird flu spread saying, “parehong viral yan, kaya halos pareho lang ng action.”

Manalili said that the conduct of preventing the spread of ebola serves as their actual case study for simulation drill.

He said they have conducted several table top drills in addressing bird flu in the past where skills and competencies of members of different avian flu task forces in Central Luzon were measured.

A table top drill on the preparedness for possible bird flu infection usually measures the capabilities of members of avian flu task forces to interpret a situation that will serve as basis for their next action that includes stamping out and communication procedure.

On Friday, Juan Lubroth of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) hailed the actions conducted by the Philippine government with regard to ebola Reston virus.

He said the government was right in conducting consultations with stakeholders with regard to the issue of Ebola Reston virus.

In December, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health announced the discovery of Ebola Reston in a hog farm in Pandi, Bulacan.

This was followed by an invitation of both departments to representatives of the FAO, World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health to help conduct an investigation that resulted in the discovery of six cases of humans that developed anti-bodies against the virus. – With AP