MANILA, July 29 (Reuters) - The Philippines said on
Wednesday it had slaughtered nearly 39,000 chickens in a poultry
farm north of the capital Manila to curb a bird flu outbreak,
more than four months after detecting infections in a nearby
province.
The Department of Agriculture's (DA) Bureau of Animal
Industry has detected the presence of the highly infectious H5N6
subtype of the influenza A virus in an egg-producing farm in San
Luis town in Pampanga province.
Upon confirming the report, a team of veterinarians and
animal health officers had immediately implemented emergency
control measures, culling 38,701 poultry and disposing of the
carcasses, the DA said in a statement.
In March, the DA detected an avian flu outbreak involving
the same virus in a quail farm in Jaen municipality in Nueva
Ecija province, where about 1,500 quails had died and some
12,000 others had been culled. Initial investigation by the DA showed the presence in San
Luis town of migratory birds, which has been associated with
bird flu outbreaks in many countries, including the Philippines.
The DA said broilers, the primary source of poultry meat,
were not affected by the latest outbreak.