CEBU CITY — For more than a month, the province of Cebu will bar the entry of poultry products and byproducts from Luzon.
Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia has issued an Executive Order (EO) banning the entry into the province of poultry products and byproducts from Luzon following the confirmed cases of bird flu in the provinces of Laguna, Pampanga, Bulacan, and Camarines Sur.
The EO took effect on Tuesday, March 8, and will last for 45 days.
Barred from entering the province are live poultry or wild birds including day-old chicks, semen, fresh eggs, embryonated eggs, manure, among others.
Garcia issued the EO after stakeholders of Cebu’s poultry industry expressed fears over the reported H5N1 in some parts of Luzon.
“They were worried. We also learned that some poultry products from Luzon cannot enter Negros Occidental anymore,” Garcia told reporters.
The 45-day ban is meant to protect Cebu’s P12-billion poultry industry, the governor said.
“All local chief executives are directed to strengthen and implement minimum biosecurity measures in their area of jurisdiction,particularly at the poultry establishments, slaughterhouses/abattoirs, poultry dressing plants, live bird markets, and poultry farms,” read the governor’s EO.
The Provincial Veterinary Office is also expected to monitor “identified critical and risk areas and sample collection” to detect any possible cases of bird flu.
Garcia noted that the Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture has yet to issue a “no movement” policy of poultry products and byproducts despite the confirmed bird flu cases in Luzon.