CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Poultry stakeholders from the Province of Pampanga met on Monday, September 4, at the Benigno Aquino Hall in Capitol to discuss the recent bird flu outbreak in San Luis town and how measures could be undertaken to prevent such from happening again.

The forum dubbed "Learning from the Avian Influenza Outbreak," was called for by Vice-Governor Dennis Pineda to discuss the things learned from the recent outbreak and also learn from the best practices of other countries on containing the virus.

The discussion featured updates on the current operations in San Luis town by Department of Agriculture (DA) regulatory chief Eduardo Lapuz. Early detection through sampling and disease surveillance was also discussed by DA integrated laboratory chief Milagros Mananggit.

Resource speakers from China were also present during the forum. Director Dr. Xiumei Zhang of Shandong Association of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine discussed best practices in containing the virus in China. The avian influenza virus is endemic in China which also hosts the most number of avian influenza virus subtypes that have been recorded in recent years.

The forum also hosted an open forum where participants from the poultry sector aired their concerns.