POULTRY growers in the city is asking the Department of Agriculture (DA)-Davao if it could exclude the city from the lifting of the poultry shipment ban as it may still bring danger to the health of their poultry animals.
DA-Bureau of Animal Industry lifted the ban on the transport of live domestic and wild birds including poultry products from Pampanga and Nueva Ecija last Tuesday, August 22.
DA Avian Influenza Spokesperson Dr. Dannie Apelo, in an interview with SunStar Davao, said the agriculture department had a meeting with Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII) and several chairmans of various poultry farms in the city last Wednesday, August 23, regarding their sentiments on the recent lifting of ban.
Apelo said the poultry farm owners, during the meeting, wrote a letter of request to DA central office to review the decision of the ban lifting considering that the bird flu cases in Pampanga and in Nueve Ecija are still persistent.
"We told them that DA 11 (Davao Region) cannot disobey the decision of the central office unless the city government will create an ordinance that will block the entry of poultry products in the city until the situation of bird flu in Luzon eases down," he said.
Apelo said DA-Davao, City Health Office (CHO), and City Veterinary's Office will remain vigilant despite the lifting of the ban.
He added that continuous blood-sampling in various poultry farms in Calinan, Tugbok, and Tamugan will still continue along with the intensified surveillance on the quarantine sites in Kinuskusan, Davao Del Sur, Talaingod, Davao del Norte, Boston town in Davao Oriental, Monkaya in Compostela Valley, Sta. Maria in Davao Occidental, and Buda in Davao City.