Bird flu cuts Philippine egg production by 20 percent

MANILA, Philippines — Egg producers confirmed yesterday that their production has dropped by 20 percent due to the culling of at least 10 million chicken layers amid the bird flu outbreak.

Based on the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s estimate, the entire population of chicken layers is at 45 million, but industry estimates peg it at around 60 million.

“If a total 10 million were culled, that’s big,” Gregorio San Diego, who chairs both the United Broiler Raisers Association and the Philippine Egg Board, told The STAR.

However, that’s not just the problem of the local industry. San Diego said there is a flooding of eggs in the market due to the abrupt decline in Filipinos’ daily consumption.

“We have so many stocks of eggs in the farms because of low demand for eggs as consumers don’t buy (as much as before), because of limited budgets,” he said.

San Diego added that producers suffer losses as traders buy their eggs at below P4 per piece, compared to the P5 daily budget for feeds of each chicken layer.

Action sought Amid the prevailing situation, San Diego criticized the DA for its failure to act on the approval of the avian flu vaccine.

“The DA has yet to act on the vaccine against avian flu. We are already in crisis and yet it is still slow acting on the needs of the industry,” he said.

San Diego noted that big companies were forced to smuggle the vaccine amid fears of the virus spreading further in the country.

He cited how neighboring countries are already using vaccines against bird flu, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

“We have been urging the DA to act. Our fear is if the virus further mutates, it will be very difficult for the industry to recover,” he said.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said bird flu spreads among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species.

It said that bird flu viruses do not normally infect humans. However, sporadic human infections with avian influenza viruses have occurred.

Full-time chief

Like many agriculture sector leaders, San Diego is one of those who believe it is about time President Marcos appointed a permanent and full-time DA secretary.

“Since his assumption in office, he only visited the DA twice, and he always travels abroad plus the fact that the country has many problems. He should assign a permanent secretary who will focus on the agriculture sector on a daily basis,” San Diego said.?He noted that since the Marcos administration took over, there has been a litany of crises besetting the agriculture sector.

“We have a crisis on onions, sugar and chicken. It will be fair to the industry if he will appoint a permanent secretary,” he said.