Friday, August 10, 2007 Bizmen push ban on entry of fresh meat
THE business sector and local government units in Mindanao are working on measures to ensure that fresh meat from other parts of the country does not sneak into the island.
Dr. Rafael Mercado, head of livestock and poultry division of the Department of Agriculture (DA)-Southern Mindanao and Mindanao task force head against Avian Influenza, said there are more reasons for everyone to be cautious about guarding and protecting the bird flu and Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD)-free Mindanao.
He said they are grateful of the Davao City government initiative of coming up with an ordinance that bans the entry of fresh meat to the city.
He said they are working also with other local government units to take steps in strengthening, monitoring and guarding possible entries of the foodstuff.
"Our meat products remain safe and we had been carefully protecting our being a disease-free hog meat," he said.
"We need to produce more because of the current demand and in fact we aim for a 3.5 percent growth this year. Our growth in 2006 was at 1.6 percent," he said.
But he said prevention and protection must be strengthened because there has been report of meat products illegally entering in Mindanao.
On the other hand, he said the hog cholera cases in Luzon, affecting 17 municipalities of Bulacan and 22 towns of Pampanga has hastened the need for Mindanao to closely guard the island for contamination through the entry of infected meat products.
He said about 5,000 heads reported to have been affected in Luzon by the hog cholera, but latest updates indicated that the situation is now under control.
Jason Magnaye, executive director of the Mindanao Business Council also said that they will be adding resolution of the already drafted resolutions that will be submitted to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap in time for the Mindanao Food Congress on August 15 and 16 on hog cholera.
He said there is a need to put some safeguards in preventing the entry of fresh meat from Luzon to Mindanao.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap earlier reported that the recent hog cholera outbreak in Luzon would have no impact on the Philippines' application for FMD-free status considering that the disease had been confined to only a few backyard farms in Bulacan and Pampanga and immediately had been contained within a week's time as a result of the DA's fast response to the problem.
He said if the Philippines can keep its FMD-free status for good, government resources can be re-channeled to programs covering the control of other diseases that threaten animal and human health.
He said the DA is intensifying its hog vaccination campaign as well as on continuing education among farm producers to go for good agricultural practices.
