SAN LUIS -- Members of the group who helped cull thousands of fowls in bird flu affected farms in this town on Wednesday, August 30, received their compensation from the Provincial Capitol.
The 316 members of the “culling army” received their pay through Vice- Governor Dennis Pineda, who handed at least P750,400 as compensation of the Provincial Government to the workers who culled fowls in poultry farms here following the declaration of an avian flu outbreak by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol last August 11.
Each worker was paid P700 for every day of labor. They worked for a day or up to five days. They received the wage in cash at the Dr. Emigdio Bondoc Convention Center here. Not one of them showed symptoms of the flu virus.
Capitol hired them to speed up the destruction of egg-laying chicken, ducks and quails in order to prevent the spread of the bird flu virus outside the 1-km quarantine zone around Barangays San Carlos and Sta. Rita, Vice Governor Pineda said.
"Thank you for helping save the poultry industry because culling was one way to stop the spread of the virus," said the vice-governor, who is also the vice chairman of the Pampanga Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
President Rodrigo Duterte declared that the outbreak was over and vouched for the safety of poultry products in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija when he visited Pampanga on August 28 to meet poultry industry stakeholders and officials at the Heroes Hall in the City of San Fernando.
The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and the provincial government, assisted by 300 soldiers, destroyed a total of 470,640 chicken layers, broilers, ducks, pigeons, game fowl, native chicken and quail within the one-kilometer quarantine zone and seven-kilometer control area, according to Roy Abaya, director of the Department of Agriculture in Central Luzon.
The vice governor said Governor Lilia Pineda has instructed him to prepare a cash-for-work project for farmworkers who will be out of job for three months.
During that period, BAI will release and grow chicks to know if the poultry farms are avian flu-free. The sentinel stocks will be tested several times in 35 days until the 90-day period is completed.
To contain the outbreak, the provincial government deployed a medical team that conducted checkups, vaccinated 220 workers and gave tamiflu to farm personnel, residents, provincial and municipal personnel involved in the culling.
Capitol also provided meals to policemen, soldiers and other government personnel. It sent two backhoe loaders that made pits for the burial of fowls. It held coordination meetings and organized bird flu awareness and prevention assemblies for village leaders.
