The Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that there is no reported bird flu case in the Philippines after China and India declared an outbreak.
“Year-round ang monitoring namin. Wala tayo dito sa Pilipinas,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar told radio DZMM.
(We have year-round monitoring. We don’t have [bird flu] here in the Philippines.)
Department of Agriculture and Department of Health identified 60 areas where the Bureau of Animal Industry regularly collects samples from migratory birds as part of the avian influenza prevention program.
“Kung may ma-detect man ay gagawa na agad ng intervention,” BAI director Ronnie Domingo told radio DZMM.
(If we detect it, we will immediately do an intervention.)
Also read: Is new Chinese bird flu the ‘disease X’ keeping scientists awake at night?
No bird flu in the Philippines
China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced Saturday a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 bird flu outbreak at a farm in the southern province of Hunan.
More than half of nearly 8,000 chickens in the said farm already died because of the outbreak.
Earlier this week, authorities in India also started culling chickens and destroying eggs to contain the bird flu virus.
Meanwhile, a different bird flu strain – the H5N8 virus – has broken out in eastern Europe in recent weeks.
In 2013, A bird flu outbreak in China back ended up costing $6.5 billion in economic losses, according to UN experts.