Philippines to cull 6,000 hogs to stamp out Ebola-Reston virus

MANILA, Feb. 23 (Chinese media) -- Philippine agriculture authority will start

culling roughly 6,000 heads of pigs in a farm in Luzon, northern Philippines in

a move to curtail the transmission of Ebola Reston virus and protect the local

livestock industry.

In a press briefing held Monday, Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arthur C.

Yap said that they decided to cull animals in a farm in Bulacan, as test results

done by various local and international agencies reveal that viral transmission

continues to exist in this farm.

Blood samples collected from humans and pigs in this farm were tested

positive for the Ebola strain that is proved to pose non-fatal threat to human

health.

The testing was done by a joint mission comprised of Food and Agricultural

Organization, the World Animal Health Organization, the World Health

Organization and their local counterparts.

The investigation on Ebola strain started last month, as it is the first

time in the world that Ebola-Reston virus is find to linger in the swine and

evidence suggests that the virus might have jumped to hog-farm workers from the

sick pigs.

Yap assured that the culling won't affect meat supply in the country as the

number is less than one percent of the total hog population in the Philippines.

There are over 10 million hogs being raised all over the country.

The Philippines is one of the world's biggest pork consumers and pork is

one of the main protein sources among Filipinos.

Yap said that the joint mission recommended this "management imperative" on

the back of a possible pig to human transmission of Ebola-Reston virus.

Philippine Health Secretary earlier assured the public that the

Ebola-Reston so far will not cause significant illness to humans.

Five people with regular contact with hogs were found to carry the

anti-bodies of Ebola-Reston virus, which means they were infected by the strain

but have fully recovered without apparent syndromes.

Experts of international agencies said they will continue to study the

Ebola strain to know how it can be controlled.

"We can't speculate. We don't know the source of this virus, how it's being

transmitted. We're studying that," said Soe Nyunt-U, WHO Representative in the

Philippines.

"We support the Bureau of Animal Industry to expand surveillance in other

areas," said Kazuyuki Tsurumi, FAO Representative in the Philippines.