Bird-brained, egghead

ANGRY ARE the poultry raisers of my hometown of Sto. Tomas and neighboring Minalin.

Their farms are well beyond the seven-kilometer radius “control area” set by the Department of Agriculture to contain the spread of avian influenza from its ground zero of San Carlos in San Luis town. Yet, their produce suffers the same stigma as those from the infected farms themselves. Subjected as they are to what they called “very restrictive and unclear provisions carried by the ban” imposed by the Bureau of Animal Industry.

"It is very unfair that we could not sell eggs even if we are not part of the areas with infection," lamented Mayor Johnny Sambo, who, being a graduate of veterinary medicine, presumably knows what he says.

“Kulkul” (literally translating to “hole”), a sliver of land straddling the Sto. Tomas-Minalin boundary, is the biggest egg-producing area of the fourth district at 1.5 million eggs daily.

Even as Sambo claims Sto. Tomas’ 700,000 stocks are for egg production, Minalin has long been acclaimed the “Egg Basket of Central Luzon.” Just to underscore the gravity with which the BAI ban impacted upon the poultry farms there. The reported P4 million daily losses in revenues from unsold eggs being but the most conservative estimates. 

So, what is there to do but for Sambo to plead with the BAI to clarify “restrictive” provisions in its ban and issue “shipping permits” to areas outside the one-kilometer radius quarantine zone and seven-kilometer radius controlled area.

Pleadings, given governmental inertia, miraculously answered with utmost dispatch.

Lo and behold, came rushing right in the midst of Sambo’s town hall meeting Monday with poultry farm owners the BAI chief veterinary officer/assistant secretary for livestock/officer-in-charge director bearing a freshly minted – dated the same Monday, August 14 – memorandum circular which title is even longer than those appended to the bearer’s name: “Amendment to MC 8 (S) 2017 on Temporary Ban in the Movement of Live Domestic and Wild Birds and their Products including Poultry Meat. Day Old Chicks, Eggs, Semen, Manure from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao.”

Most pertinent provision to the egg producers in the MC is that intra-Luzon movement of subject produce “may be allowed” provided it is outside the seven-kilometer radius control area and accompanied by shipping permit and veterinary health certificate for live birds, and shipping permit and meat inspection certificate for poultry meat fresh or frozen, and presumably eggs included.

New pleadings – and more prayers – come now from the poultry owners: for the BAI to be as swift in communicating its circular to all its regional and provincial officials and ensuring that it be followed by the LGUs for them to cease and desist from stopping the access of Pampanga’s bird flu-free poultry products in their territories.

All’s well…but not quite.      

Angrier are the duck people of Candaba. For good reasons, having long held the birthright to the egg-bird industry in the province celebrated in its eponymous Ibon-Ebon festival.  

Already smarting from daily losses of up to P8 million caused by the BAI ban, the very reputation that put their town in the world map has been tarnished.

“Evidence showed that migratory birds could have been the cause of the avian influenza,” so said one BAI functionary, who, when asked for proof of what he said, first cited some generalized. purported statistics from China and then rephrased his statement of the migratory birds as “only suspected” of being a possible cause.

So, has the BAI conducted any on-site studies in the wetlands where migratory birds flock to support their “suspicion”?

Nada.

How the Candabenos wished Jerry Pelayo were still their mayor, if only to knock some folk sense into the head of that BAI minion!

All suggestions in the past of migratory birds being carriers of avian influenza were routinely, and haughtily, dismissed by Koyang Jerry as hogwash, thus: How can a sick bird escaping the cold winter of China or Siberia ever survive the long flight across vast oceans, roost in Candaba, and infect all poultry life there?

Yay. in the current scheme of things avian, the BAI seems not only caught with its pants down, so to speak. It has too tiny eggs to show.