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Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Quarantine office declares Zambo as bird-flu free
"We (city residents) are free of any danger of the bird flu virus." This was the assurance of Miriam Lopez-Vito, regional veterinary quarantine officer under the Department of Agriculture (DA).
She said two accredited groups from the Philippine Animal Health Center (PAHC) were here last week to personally conduct probe on the possible existence of the bird flu virus on the migratory birds and domesticated fowls in Zamboanga City and in the Zamboanga Peninsula.
There is no medium here to place samples extracted from suspected fowls and migratory birds to avoid any spoiling, but based on experts' examination, the city is still negative of the deadly virus as of the present.
She revealed that their findings are known for accurateness that no less than the Philippines was recently cited internationally for its immediate and prompt mobilization in checking the reported presence of the virus in dead chickens in Calumpit, Bulacan, recently.
"Based on the Australian testing of the Calumpit case, the result was found negative. Everybody was mobilized when a case (of bird flu) in Calumpit was reported," Lopez-Vito disclosed.
She said such disease should not be hidden, and proper measures should immediately be adopted. And for this, she said, the government was internationally cited in its fight against the deadly virus that presently wreaks havoc in the world community.
She said health authorities in the country are trying to keep Stage 1, which is protection plan of the four-elevated stages in classifying the danger levels of the bird flu threat.
Stage 1, she said, is keeping the Philippines still a bird flu free country. "And, we are still on that stage," she happily announced.
She said everything worked in submitting the samples gathered from the Calumpit incident that turned out false in breaking the alarming news report worldwide that the Philippines registered its first bird flu case.
Lopez-Vito said they have scheduled seminar workshop on avian influenza awareness in Dipolog City last Monday. They will conduct a similar workshop in Pagadian City on Wednesday.
Last week, separate avian influenza seminar workshops were launched in the city and in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay province.
She asked the public not to panic, as the presence of the dreaded virus in domestic fowls and the barn swallows spotted in the city was still considered unlikely by visiting health experts, who all arrived here last week.
Last year, a probe team from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) examined the swallows and the samples were discovered negative of the virus, according to Lopez-Vito.
However, she cautioned the local folk to keep away from dead migratory birds, and to immediately report these to health authorities here.
She called on folks living near known marshlands in Vitali and Mampang and in Zamboanga Sibugay to report any disturbing signs evident on their fowls or migratory birds invading their areas for health authorities to immediately take the necessary steps.
(November 23, 2005 issue)
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