The Antique Provincial Veterinary (ProVet) Office has banned the entry of poultry products and by-products from other regions until April 29 due to the threat of avian flu.
Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao released Executive Order (EO) 23 on March 29 to the ProVet Office for the immediate implementation of the “temporary total ban on the entry of all live domestic and wild birds and poultry products and by-products including its meat, day-old chicks, eggs, semen, and manure from other regions to Antique”.
“The ban is implemented because of the threat of the highly contagious viral disease bird flu,” ProVet head of public health division Dr. Marco Rafael Ardamil said in an interview Wednesday.
Bird flu or avian influenza was detected in a duck farm in the municipality of Baliuag, Bulacan, and quail farms in towns of Candaba, and Mexico in Pampanga, prompting the Department of Agriculture (DA) to issue guidelines on the movement of domestic and captured wild birds, poultry products and by-products to prevent its spread to other areas in the country with no cases.
In the EO, Antique will only temporarily allow the shipment of dressed chicken, eggs, and other poultry products from provinces within Western Visayas that are free from avian flu.
Suppliers will be required to show their veterinary health certificate, transport carrier certificate, and handlers license from DA’s Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) at the border checkpoints in the towns of Anini-y and Hamtic in the southern part of Antique from Iloilo province and the towns of Libertad and Pandan in the north.
These checkpoints have been installed because of the African swine fever (ASF) threat but will now include bird flu.
“So far, there had yet been no confiscation of poultry products and by-products from Luzon or other areas outside the region at the checkpoints,” Ardamil said.
He added that they will see if there is a need to extend the prohibition after April 29.
Source: Philippines News Agency
