MANAOAG, Pangasinan, Dec. 11 —- A 30-hectare piggery farm in Barangay Parian here was placed under quarantine starting on Thursday as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the dreaded ebola virus.
The move was undertaken after the Tropical Disease Institute of the Philippines (TDIP) examined all the hogs in the Lambino farm in this town and found out most of its swine were afflicted by ebola virus, believed to be the same virus that infected humans some years back in Africa.
The virus was discovered when specimens of hogs being raised in the Lambino farm, located just in the boundary of Manaoag to Mapandan town, were examined by TDIP and turned out positive of ebola.
Department of Agriculture Regional Director Cipriano Santiago rushed to the Lambino farm Thursday morning along with officials of the Bureau of Animal Industry and Department of Health and Municipal Health Office to check on the farm.
Joining them in the inspection were veterinary officers in Pangasinan and Manaoag town, the municipal agriculture officer and the Manaoag Police headed by Supt. Mateo Casupang.
Santiago immediately imposed the necessary quarantine on the farm to ensure that henceforth no hogs would be brought out for sale and no other hogs would come in till the same is lifted.
He said this means that the piggery farm would be closely monitored 24 hours a day to ensure that the requirement is strictly followed.
“The public have no reason to panic because henceforth we will not allow any hog to be brought out for sale in the market nor we allow additional stocks to be brought in,” Santiago said.
According to Santiago, the ebola virus that attacked the swine in the Lambino farm is a strain that affects only the hogs but not humans, which means that the matter is not a concern on public health but on animal health.
He called on the people not to panic because the meat of the infected animals can be eaten if washed and cooked thoroughly.
Santiago said that so far, it is only in the Lambino farm in the entire province of Pangasinan where the ebola virus was detected.
He explained that the quarantine is just a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the disease although he said that the virus is non-transmittable to humans or to other hogs.
Dr. Raymond Veloria, municipal health officer of Manaoag, who was among those who inspected the piggery farm, said based on the findings of the TDIP, most of the swine and piglets in the farm were infected by the virus.
Veloria reported that the farm has 14 sows, 11 boars, 53 growers, 70 weanlings, and 217 pigs for fattening.
The initial inventory showed there were 62 piglets that were found to have diarrhea, he said.
Veloria added that based on these findings, the Municipal Health Office, together with the Department of Health and the DA, recommended that the farm be quarantined for at least one to two months.
However, Veloria said that the people should not panic because ebola virus is non-pathogenic in humans and the infected piglets do not transmit diseases.
Saying that ebola virus came from monkeys and first afflicted Africans, like those from Kenya and Congo, Veloria believed an infected person or hog from those African countries may have carried the virus to the Philippines.
Veloria revealed that per documentation of the ebola virus, it was also detected in farms in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija. (PNA)
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