Pinaghahanda na ni House Ways and Means Committee Chair Joey Salceda ang pamahalaan mula sa posibleng outbreak ng avian influenza virus sa bansa.
Ayon kay Salceda, pinaka dapat bantayan ng gobyerno ay ang lalawigan ng Batangas at Cebu.
Maliban kasi sa pagiging top 1 at 3 sa poultry production ay puntahan din aniya ito ng migratory birds.
Sa kasalukuyan, kinakitaan ng malaking bilang ng tinatamaan ng H5N1 avian flu virus ang ilang migratory birds mula South America.
“There are high risk areas – areas where both wildlife avian migration and poultry raising are heavily concentrated. The hotspots will really be Batangas and Cebu since both are heavy on avian migration and heavy on poultry raising – number 1 and number 3 for top producing provinces,” babala ni Salceda.
Ayon pa sa House Committee on Agriculture and Food chair, dapat ay sundan ng Pilipinas ang hakbang ng Vietnam, Egypt, at maging China na nagpatupad na ng poultry vaccination.
Dahil naman sa banta ng avian flu sa food supply lalo na sa manok at itlog, iminungkahi nito ang pagbuo ng isang “interagency task force for animal disease”.
Kasama naman sa maaaring ilatag na mitigation efforts ng pamahalaan sakaling tumama pa rin sa Pilipinas ang avian flu ay ang pagkakaroon ng agricultural insurance sa poultry farms, low-interest loans para sa biosafety investments at disease surveillance mechanisms sa pagitan ng farmer groups.
“The DA should be able to call upon the resources and expertise of other agencies. So an Inter-Agency Task Force with the DA as Chair and with key members from other agencies should be on the agenda. I don’t think it’s a question of if. It’s a matter of when. Readiness never hurts. Anyway, Congress is ready to help, and if need be, it should also be discussed in the budget” dagdag ng mambabatas. | ulat ni Kathleen Jean Forbes
