GOVERNMENT meat inspectors has disallowed the sale and distribution of 21 tons of dressed chicken suspected of contamination of the avian flu virus that reached Cagayan de Oro City on Monday, August 14.
The National Meat Inspection Services in Northern Mindanao confirmed the suspicious dressed chicken have undergone thorough inspection when it arrived at the Oro port last Monday.
"We ordered them to not sell or distribute any of the chicken yet as confirmatory tests are still being done to make sure that the chicken are free of bird-flu virus," Dr. Angie Barcelona, regional technical director of the NMIS-10 said.
Barcelona said the chicken were inspected inside the owner's storage. She however declined to divulge the name and the location of the said storage.
The chicken are still under the custody of the owner and not at the NMIS.
Dr. Dale Llentic, Department of Agriculture-10 quarantine officer, said the chicken were initially tagged as suspicious because they were butchered in Bulacan, a province near Pampanga where the bird flu outbreak was declared.
In a memorandum circular issued Friday, August 11, the Bureau of Animal Industry banned the movement of live and domestic wild birds and their products from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao amid the avian flu outbreak in Pampanga.
It said no movement of these products from Pampanga to other parts of Luzon will be allowed "to prevent further spread of the disease in other parts of Luzon and to Visayas and Mindanao."
The BAI also said that the ban will be lifted when there are no new cases reported 90 days after the stamping out activity including disinfection of all affected areas and surveillance. (Pamela Jay Orias of VoxPop Cagayan de Oro/VoxPop Philippines)
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