MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has not seen any new case of bird flu, 10 months after it was reported in March last year.
“We have eradicated the bird flu... The BAI (Bureau of Animal Industry) has declared that and it is up for the secretary’s (William Dar) signature,” Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary for livestock William Medrano told a press briefing yesterday.
Medrano said the declaration would be submitted to the World Organization for Animal Health for official certification.
The H5N6 highly pathogenic avian influenza was first detected in Barangay Ulanin-Pitak in Jaen, Nueva Ecija in March. Around 15,000 quails were affected.
The same strain of bird flu was detected in an egg farm in Pampanga in July, resulting in the culling of around 40,000 heads of layer chickens.
After two months, the virus was detected in several backyard farms in Taytay, Rizal.
The DA implemented its 1-7 protocol, wherein birds within one-kilometer where bird flu was detected were tested and culled if found positive of the disease.