Da Places Hog Farms Across

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Bureau Of Animal Industry Director Catbagan Says Combined Swine Inventory Is About 3 Million Pigs

By Ira Karen Apanay, Senior Reporter THE Department of Agriculture (DA) on Friday has placed under surveillance thousands of hog farms across Luzon to be sure that the Ebola-Reston virus is not spreading to other swine farms. Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) Director Davinio Catbagan said the BAI would cover Central Luzon, the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) and Pangasinan because these areas cover the bulk of the country’s hog population. Combined swine inventory in these areas is about three million pigs, he added. However, Catbagan said govern­ment’s plan to cover more areas nationwide will depend on laboratory kits that the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States will be sending here. He explained that CDC is the only company that produces the kits needed for such kind of animal tests. “The scope of our surveillance work and our decision to cast a wider net in carrying out this task will depend on their commitment to us because it is the only institution in the world that can produce the test kits,” Catbagan said. Catbagan said Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap would ask the US government to ensure the supply of test kits for the sampling of the 30,000 pigs that will be initially covered by the surveillance work. He stressed that the CDC has delivered on its commitment to help the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in conducting the tests on the initial batch of pig samples that were used by the government to check the presence of the Ebola-Reston virus. The Agriculture department slaughtered 6,210 pigs infected with Ebola-Reston virus last week in Pandi, Bulacan to stop the virus from further spreading. Catbagan said it would take the farm in Pandi, Bulacan at least three to six months to return to normal piggery operations because the BAI would still have to conduct a series of exhaustive tests to ensure that the site is already free of Ebola-Reston virus. After cleaning, disinfecting and decontaminating the farm, Cat­bagan said the farm would be left vacant for a period of at least one-and-a-half months. Following this period, he said the BAI would place a small batch of “sentinel pigs” inside the farm and then subject these animals to a series of sampling protocols after two months to ensure that the area is entirely free of the virus. “If all the tests come out negative, then this could be a good indication that the farm can return to normal activities,” Catbagan said. He said the provincial government of Bulacan has pledged to provide assistance to the displaced workers of the Pandi farm in cash and other forms of aid such as academic scholarships for their children. The farm owner has also promised to pay separation benefits for its workers while business operations are suspended, he said