THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is set to lift the temporary ban on the transport of poultry products from provinces outside the quarantine area in Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao amid assurances of the agency’s experts that the virus has been contained.

“Today, on the recommendation of the biosecurity team, I will be signing after the press conference an AO lifting the ban on shipments of poultry products to other parts on the country on certain conditions,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told reporters at a briefing at the DA headquarters in Quezon City.

Mr. Piñol said the products to be transported must not originate from the seven-kilometer quarantine radius of bird flu-affected areas in San Luis, Pampanga and in the towns of Jaen and San Isidro in Nueva Ecija.

“Any shipment to be made must be validated by our quarantine officers, and must carry certification that they came from accredited and inspected farms in Luzon. And the products must carry the seal of the quarantine officers,” he added.

“We made the decision to lift ban on the shipment of poultry products from Luzon to other parts of the country — subject of course to biosecurity measures — on the recommendation of bio experts [who] believed it is now safe to do that,” Mr. Piñol added.

“Second, this is more emotional consideration with the fact that we have also listened to the pleadings of the farmers,” he added.

Mr. Piñol has said that it may take 21 days before the department can deploy sentinel birds to affected areas to determine whether the virus is still present. It would take another 90 days to tell whether the sentinel birds show signs of the disease.

“We are actually in the dark how far the virus has spread,” Mr. Piñol added, noting that while the DA received reports of bird flu on Aug. 3, there were indications certain farms in San Luis, Pampanga were hit as early as April.

Following confirmation of the outbreak, the DA imposed a temporary ban on the movement of live domestic and wild birds and their products including poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs, semen, and manure from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao.

Poultry growers whose products remained free of the disease have said they face massive losses due to the transport ban.

Mr. Piñol also rejected news reports of the existence of the flu in Butuan where the death of 200 ducks was reported. He said the cause of those deaths was poor farm management and overcrowding, not avian flu.

On the confirmed avian influenza cases in Nueva Ecija, Bureau of Animal Industry Veterinarian Arlene Asteria V. Vytiaco said the agency started culling poultry within the one-kilometer control zone, adding that the outbreak has been contained with the cull to be completed by the end of the week.

Mr. Piñol said the DA is considering a plan, to be cleared with President Rodrigo R. Duterte, to send excess chicken to Marawi for distribution by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, as a means of supporting the industry amid depressed prices. 

However, poultry raisers said during the briefing that the ability to preserve slaughtered chicken is limited as cold storage facilities are full.

“The chicken that is frozen currently can be shipped to Mindanao,” Mr. Piñol said, noting the availability of capacity at a new cold storage facility in a breeder farm in Davao.

For its part, Bounty Agro-Venture, Inc. (BAVI), operator of the largest roasted chicken chain and supplier of fresh dressed chicken, assured the public that its chicken products are safe and none of its farms is affected by the disease.“We have set up our operations specifically to protect ourselves and our customers against these types of eventualities. We are taking the avian flu situation seriously and we will continue to monitor the situation to make sure that our products continue to be safe for public consumption,” BAVI President and General Manager Ronald R. Mascariñas was quoted in a statement on Tuesday. — Janina C. Lim

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR