Farmers group Samahang Industriya sa Agrikultura (SINAG) is urging the government to stop all chicken and poultry imports amid reports of several outbreaks of severe bird flu in Asia and Europe.
“Dapat natuto na tayo sa African Swine Fever (ASF) at sa COVID-19 pandemic. Nakita natin ang kahalagahan ng masusing pagbabantay sa mga papasok sa bansa,” SINAG chairman Rosendo So said in a statement.
(We should have learned our lessons from the ASF and COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve seen the importance of strictly guarding our borders.)
SINAG’s chairman said the current global outbreak is worrisome since 21 human infections in China with the H5N6 subtype of avian influenza so far has been reported, more than in the whole of 2020.
Further, he said that the outbreak is “now closer to us than it was a few days before.”
Citing reports, SINAG said that South Korea reported an outbreak at a farm of around 770,000 poultry in Chungcheongbuk-do.
Likewise, Japan reported its first outbreak at a poultry farm in the north-east of the country.
In Europe, Norway already reported an H5N1 bird flu outbreak in the Rogaland region in a flock of 7,000 birds, according to the group.
So said that funds were already allotted since 2019 for the establishment of the first border inspection facilities; and yet, not a single inspection facility was established, contrary to the provisions of RA 10611, or the Food Safety Law of 2013.
“We are the only country that is not applying the global standard of quarantine inspection at the port of first entry of any imported food, food products and agricultural commodity to ensure food safety and public health security, amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
GMA News Online has contacted the DA for comment, but the department has yet to make a reply as of posting time.
“We demand a no quarantine inspection of chicken and all other agricultural commodities at the port of first entry would mean no entry of imports,” So insisted. —LBG, GMA News
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