By Roel Amazona
TACLOBAN CITY – Various locations in Eastern Visayas have established animal quarantine checkpoints and enforced a temporary prohibition on live chickens and poultry items originating from Kananga, Leyte, due to concerns about bird flu.
The municipalities of Matag-ob, Palompon, Isabel, and Merida have each issued executive orders banning the entry of live and wild poultry into their jurisdictions.
Mayor Ramon Oňate of Palompon stated on Friday that the directive aims to safeguard not only the large-scale poultry farms in his municipality but also the backyard poultry raisers.
Palompon is situated 38 kilometers from Kananga town or about 40 minutes of land travel.
In Matag-ob town, Mayor Bernardino Tacoy formed a task force to deal with the situation affecting chickens and control their possible spread.
Just next to Kananga town, Tacoy ordered village officials to be vigilant and immediately report possible cases of bird flu in their communities.
For his part, Mayor Rolando Villasencio of Merida town said they need to protect the welfare of his people and make sure that the avian influenza will not affect their town considering they have two poultry farms also owned by the same family that operates the farm in Kananga with bird flu-infected chickens.
Baybay City Mayor Jose Carlos Cari also issued a directive banning the entry of chicken and other poultry products from Kananga town.
“However, live chicken, raw chicken meat, and processed poultry meat products coming from Southern Leyte, Cebu City, and other towns and provinces that do not traverse the territorial jurisdiction of places with declared incidents and cases of the avian influenza virus will be allowed subject to the presentation of documents,” Cari’s said.
Also, the provincial government of Eastern Samar ordered the banning of entry of any poultry products from Leyte province.
Governor Ben Evardone issued an executive order mandating and ordering personnel who are manning border and animal quarantine checkpoints that all live poultry, eggs, and chicken dung coming from Leyte should not be allowed to enter the province.
Bird flu scare was reported on March 12 after the municipality of Kananga told the Department of Agriculture about the “abnormal daily mortality” of chickens inside the Leyte Poultry Development Corp.
A month earlier, farm workers observed nasal discharge in some chickens. The onset and exponential mortalities were noted in the first week of March.
The common signs exhibited by the birds included gasping, nasal discharge, and swollen heads.
Two chickens turned positive for bird flu during a rapid test on March 13.
Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a disease caused by infection with avian (bird) influenza (flu) Type A viruses. (PNA)
