By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay

SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – Surveillance and oropharyngeal swab collection among domestic animals in the six towns of Antique province are ongoing to determine if they are affected by avian influenza (AI) virus, commonly known as bird flu.
Antique Provincial Veterinary Office Public Health Division chief Dr. Marco Rafael Ardamil said the three-day swab collection since Wednesday, with personnel from the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Animal Industry Western Visayas (Region 6), is conducted in the towns of Sibalom, San Jose de Buenavista, Belison, Patnongon, Valderrama, and Barbaza.
“The surveillance and swab collection is also being conducted in other provinces in Western Visayas to determine if there are AI that affects our domestic animals such as chicken and ducks,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
He said that they intend to collect 540 swabs from three barangays in each municipality that are considered high-risk because of the large population of domestic animals.
The swabs will be submitted for testing to the Department of Agriculture laboratory in Iloilo City on Friday.
Ardamil said that aside from the swab collection, they also joined the Community on Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) in Belison during their Asian Waterbird Census this week to find out if there are migratory birds that are possible carriers of AI.
“There are migratory birds in our province usually at this time because of the winter in the northern hemisphere,” Ardamil said.
The birds migrate to look for food and shelter.
Ardamil said DA is closely monitoring the situation in Western Visayas, including Antique, because of an AI outbreak in Central Luzon.
“Western Visayas, as of now, is AI-free. That is why we have to maintain it,” he said. (PNA)