Lack of manpower delays chicken culling in Pampanga town

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture needs a few more days to finish culling more than 200,000 poultry heads because it lacks people to do the killing.

 

The culling is part of the government’s precautionary measures against the first bird flu outbreak in the country, 

 

In a briefing Monday, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said only 18,685 poultry heads—chicken, ducks, quails, pigeons and fighting roosters—in San Luis in Pampanga have been culled since Saturday.

 

The department earlier targeted to finish culling the fowls Monday, three days after it announced the bird flu outbreak, but has now asked until Thursday to complete the whole process.

 

“There was a bit of delay. We have to understand that it is our first time to experience this problem. A lot of people still do not understand what should be done and how this problem will be handled. There is fear even among the workers,” Piñol said.

 

“Some of the workers even attempted to run away even after getting immunized for the culling process,” he added. 

 

Last Friday, the DA confirmed the outbreak of bird flu, the first case for the country, which killed close to 40,000 poultry heads and placed the province in a state of calamity.

 

Arlene Vytiaco, head of the Animal Disease Control Section of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI)’s Animal Health and Welfare Division, emphasized that they had to readjust and allot five to six days to thoroughly complete the process. 

 

“We started Saturday afternoon with only one team and were able to cull 180 heads only. We [went] full blast by Sunday with four teams covering four farms but still were not able to finish,” she said.

Following the bird flu outbreak, the department is now moving towards the inspection of all farms nationwide as another measure to avoid possible new cases of the virus.

 

Piñol said the DA, through BAI, is forming a biosecurity team that will inspect all poultry and livestock, both small and large scale, to ensure abidance to biosecurity measures. 

 

“We will start as soon as possible. We will start with the farms surrounding San Luis,” he said.

 

As of now, there are 11 checkpoints and over 90 quarantine officers guarding the vicinity of San Luis.

 

Furthemore, the department maintained that there will still be no movement of live domestic and wild birds and their by-products from mainland and island provinces of Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao.

 

However, Luzon to Luzon movement of live birds and their by-products maybe allowed provided that this is outside of the seven-kilometer radius control of area of Pampanga and subject to a shipping permit and a veterinary health certificate.

 

These should be issued by a government sector veterinarian certifying the the products were sourced from farms with no incidence of bird flu for the past 21 days prior to shipment. 

 

The temporary ban will only be lifted when there are no new cases reported 90 days after stamping out activities including disinfection of all affected areas and surveillance. 

Despite the outbreak, Piñol remains optimistic that the virus will be contained and will no longer spread in nearby provinces. 

 

“We are still lucky that the bird flu outbreak is not the type that will devastate the local poultry industry. It would have been a different story if the broilers were the ones affected,” the Agri chief said. 

 

“It is also a relief that none of the farm workers and owners within the declared ground zero have shown any indication that they have fallen ill,” he added.

 

Majority of the affected birds are layer chickens, which produce table eggs and products of farms are being delivered within Pampanga only.

 

Nine commercial layer farms, four quail farms and four duck farms have been affected.

 

In San Luis alone, there are 116,000 layer chicken heads representing a minimal three percent of the total population in Pampanga. The province comprises 12 percent of national production. 

 

In terms of broilers or chickens consumed as meat, San Luis produces 99,000 heads, 18 percent of the whole Pampanga. The province takes up seven percent of the country’s production. 

 

The Agri chief, meanwhile, said he will resign from his post once the bird flu virus spreads outside of Luzon. 

 

For the longest time, the Philippines is one of the few countries in Southeast Asia that remains free from the dreaded avian influenza virus.

 

The virus, which resurfaced in Asia in 2003, crippled poultry industries in neighboring countries, such as Vietnam.