Burn all hogs infected with ebola, Dagupan doc urges

PIA Press Release
2008/12/19

Dagupan City (19 December) -- A CITY official here has suggested the burning of all hogs in a piggery farm in barangay Parian, Manaoag, some 30 kilometers away from here, where animal health authorities recently announced discovery of a strain of the deadly ebola virus.

Councilor Jesus Canto, a physician and former director of the Region 1 Medical Center here, noted that the Lambino farm in that barangay was quarantined to ensure that no infected hogs is brought out to be sold in the local market or fresh stocks are brought in.

"To me, my personal suggestion is for the burning of all hogs in that pig farm to make sure that the virus of ebola reston will not really spread," said Canto, chair on health and sanitation of the city council here.

This is what they are doing in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia and Thailand if they notice that chicken in coops were afflicted with avian or bird flu, he added.

"We want to ensure that the deadly ebola virus is completely eliminated in the province and in the country to prevent our people from panicking," he said.

Canto believes that ebola virus is like the avian flu or the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that caused a scare in some parts of Asia, including the Philippines, in early 2000.

Canto called on veterinary and sanitary officers in Dagupan to conduct a thorough inspection of all meats being sold in all local public markets to ensure that these are not contaminated by the deadly virus.

He agrees with the findings of the Department of Health that the ebola reston strain of the virus found in pig farms in Pangasinan and also in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija is not the same strain that caused deaths of thousands of human in Africa years ago.

There is still a need however to take all the necessary precautions, even if health authorities have assured that this strain of ebola virus found in the Philippines including in Pangasinan, cannot affect humans.

"That means, our veterinarians and sanitary inspectors should conduct double-time to inspect all meats being sold in the markets and for households to see to it that meats are washed and cooked thoroughly, he said.

For its lack of slaughterhouse, Dagupan is being supplied with meat coming from Mangaldan, only a town away from Manaoag.