According to the Philippines Department of Agriculture, the country has yet to eliminate the bird flu threat in spite of the successful management measures taken in the last few weeks which also involved the slaughtering and culling of thousands of inflected poultry. Many large and small poultry farms are still yet to be disinfected. These are mainly based in Nueva Ecija and Pampara which were the epicenters of the bird flu infection.
The remaining farms have to be infected in order to ensure that the country is flu-free. Once the management measures are complete and a declaration is made, the ban on Filipino poultry products will be lifted in countries such as Japan and the UAE. Without a thorough disinfection, the manures from the infected poultry farms will also transmit the avian flu virus. The virus is capable of surviving in the manure for an extended period of time and is likely to cause an outbreak once more if the farm is not properly infected.
Large commercial farms pose a challenge when it comes to disinfection because of their scale. They have thousands of fowls that produce large piles of manure and these take time to clean. This manure has to be buried close to the disinfected area and covered with dry soil. In places such as Pampanga where the disinfection has not been successful, the main problem has been the wetness of the soil which has hindered effective manure disposal. The provincial government is currently focusing on areas where the manure burial has been done commendably.
Apart from the burial of the fowl manure, the poultry houses also have to be scrubbed as part of the overall disinfection process. This will ensure that the farm is properly sterilized before it is restocked with sentinel birds.
If the cleaning has been done as per recommendation, the Department of Agriculture will provide the farmer with sentinel birds and put them under observation for a period of 35 days. After this duration of time, if the birds are now showing any flu-like symptoms, the farmer will be free to resume normal poultry growing operations.
If they are familiar with the procedures, the disinfection can be done by the poultry farm owners. The local authorities in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija will then assess the outcome of the disinfection and pass the farmers request for restocking to the Department of Agriculture.
All that is required currently is for the affected stakeholders to participate actively in the disinfection process based on the protocols that have been put forth by the Department of Agriculture.