CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Stakeholders of the poultry industry and officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) are expected to meet for a "post-crisis analysis" to better update the country's biosecurity protocols and learn from the recent bird flu outbreak in the country.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the one-day assessment hopes "to draw more realistic and effective plans of action to tighten biosecurity measures to prevent the outbreak of poultry diseases in the country."
"The Bio-Security Audit Program which I ordered started right after the outbreak was reported in Pampanga needs to be institutionalized with the stakeholders themselves identifying and agreeing to a set of guidelines to ensure cleanliness in the farms. Many of the farms I saw in the course of my visits to the Pampanga, for example, do not have the basic bio-security facilities, like a simple footbath and vehicle disinfection facility," Piñol said.
The DA chief said that farms do not even have a proper disposal areas or measures for dead fowl and manure.
"In several areas in Pampanga, for example, many of the poultry farms sit on fishpond areas with the chicken wastes just falling into the pond and polluting the water. The disposal of chicken dung and its processing into organic fertilizer will also be one of the proposed actions to be implemented in all provinces with existing poultry farms," Piñol said.
Piñol said the protocols used in declaring the quarantine areas and the restrictions on the movement of poultry and poultry products will also be reviewed.
The DA, over the weekend, lifted the ban on the movement of poultry products within the seven-kilometer radius controlled zones in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija.
Piñol said that quarantine restrictions and surveillance, however, are still in place within the one-kilometer radius of the three towns in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija.
The DA said it will implement an interim rule of "test and slaughter" for the poultry heads coming from the farms within the seven kilometer zone.