DA setting up 3 more avian flu labs
The Department of Agriculture (DA) is setting up three more avian influenza (AI) diagnostic laboratories in the Visayas and Mindanao to look after the country's multi-billion-peso poultry industry and continue to shield Filipinos from this dreaded virus that has already killed 192 people worldwide.
According to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), these laboratories are largely funded by a grant from the Japanese government through the Japan Trust Fund, with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Office Internationale des Epizooties (OIE) or Animal Health Organization providing technical assistance in setting up these facilities.
BAI officer-in-charge Davinio Catbagan said these laboratories are now being built in the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Cebu and Zamboanga.
Once completed, he said these additional laboratories will complement the ongoing work being done at the Regional Avian Influenza Diagnostic Laboratory (RAIDL) in Pampanga, which is the country's first diagnostic facility meant to promptly detect the AI virus.
Like the RAIDL, the DA would ensure that these additional facilities fully comply with international standards for a biosafety laboratory and would be capable of conducting various tests to swiftly detect the presence of the AI virus in both live and dead bird samples, Catbagan said.
Setting up more avian flu laboratories, he said, will maintain the Philippines as one of only three countries in Southeast Asia totally free of the dreaded avian influenza or bird flu virus.
The two other AI-free countries in the region are Singapore and Brunei.
On top of building more avian flu diagnostic labs, the BAI will be conducting "real-time simulation exercises" in due time to test the measures already put in place under the Avian Influenza Protection Program (AIPP).
The BAI is also encouraging poultry farmers to implement security measures to ensure that locally raised fowl continues to be adequately shielded from migratory birds, which are known carriers of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus.
(PNA)