CEBU CITY-- Strict enforcement of quarantine will prevent the spread of bird flu virus, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said on Friday.
Piñol, who attended the Eastern and Central Visayas Mango Stakeholders Forum in Mandaue City, compared the installation of quarantine measures in areas where the Avian Influenza virus outbreak has been reported to building a “firewall”.
He said the DA actually instituted quarantine measures in Nueva Ecija last week even before the laboratory test has confirmed the bird flu outbreak in the towns of Jaen and San Isidro of said province.
The DA secretary said they were set to depopulate the area of infected fowls to stop the spread of the virus.
So far, the biggest “firewall” is in Luzon, where firewalls with a seven-kilometer radius have been set up in provinces where signs and symptoms of bird flu have been reported.
"The firewalls were built to prevent the virus from spreading to other areas of the country, and that is also why we issued a memorandum to ban the shipping out of chicken from Luzon," Piñol said.
Piñol also said they were very careful about this issue and constantly monitoring other places for possible outbreaks.
He advised poultry producers to carry out biosecurity measure. "If you own a poultry farm, you have to understand that the most important component of your farm is your biosecurity measure, where you should not allow anyone to enter your farm without proper disinfection. You should have a foot box with disinfectant for everyone who enters the farm. Even cars, before entering the farm, should be sprayed with disinfectant, because you are producing food, and food must be clean," Piñol said.
Piñol added that every poultry owner should keep his farm clean and not allow chicken waste to just scatter around the area.
Piñol likewise urged all local government units to execute strict quarantine measures as well as the Philippine National Police (PNP) to arrest anyone violating the DA administrative order banning the transportation of poultry products from Luzon to other parts of the country. (With reports by USJR intern Levirose Caballero/PNA)
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