I CANNOT fault Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Manny Piñol when he promptly issued an order to quarantine the barangay in Pampanga where the outbreak of Avian flu was reported. Hundreds of thousands of chickens and ducks were subsequently killed and disposed of to further prevent the virus from spreading to adjacent barangays.
From the news that followed later, it surfaced that as early as April, hundreds of chicken perished but poultry owners and local government authorities simply stonewalled what turned out to be a potential scourge that could wipe out the burgeoning poultry industry in Pampanga and the entire country.
Some quarters berated Piñol for being an alarmist. But the secretary acted in a manner that is required given the emergency situation. As they say, he opted to err on the side of caution or better safe than sorry. From my point of view, Secretary Piñol aptly applied the proper protocol in ordering the quarantine.
At this point, I want to believe that the spread of the deadly virus had already been contained. But the apprehension of the consumers might still be there. That is to be expected. The challenge now has shifted to the Health officials to explain why there is a necessity to contain the problem in ground zero and the vicinity and that having done that it is now safe to go back to your favorite inasal and friend chicken and to eat eggs, hard boiled, fried or scrambled.
The poultry industry will naturally expect a temporary setback. To quickly allay fears, however, the producers including restaurant establishments offering chicken as their main menu should help the government in disseminating news that the outbreak had been addressed. The action taken by Piñol should be viewed on the positive side. That the government lost no time to immediately act is viewed by health authorities worldwide as something noteworthy. It did not only prevent the infection to escalate, when all these noises shall have died down, industry players should celebrate the scourge did not wipe them out.
Piñnol is no stranger to chicken diseases. He is not just a typical farmer, he excelled in rice and corn farming, sugar cane, poultry and goat raising. He is no stranger to animal diseases and quarantine measures imposed in many occasions in North Cotabato. I should know. Manny and I are children of farmers and grew up in Cotabato. In those times we too experience sudden occurrence of chicken diseases which can eradicate thousands of range chicken which we raise. In those times we simply call the pestilence "cholera".
Given the success of the quarantine measures the poultry industry can be confident they can bounce back. Besides, outside of Pampanga, the birds are reported to be perfectly healthy. The loss in one barangay in Pampanga can be filled up by producers in Mindanao and Visayas. It takes only 30 days for a pullet to mature so the fear that the "ber" months will have a low supply of chicken in the market is simply an alarmist speculation.