Pigs to be killed to curb ebola

Manila to slaughter 6,000 pigs to stop Ebola spread

The government said 6,000 pigs would be killed, burned and buried as experts sought to determine the source of Ebola-Reston in pigs as well as pig-to-pig and from pig-to-human transmission. -- PHOTO: AFP

MANILA - THE Philippines will slaughter 6,000 pigs at a hog farm north of the capital Manila to prevent the spread of the Ebola-Reston virus, health and farm officials said on Monday.

But the government has lifted a quarantine on a second hog farm after tests by experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and Food and the Agriculture Organisation (FAO) showed no more signs of the disease.

The country has more than 13 million heads of swine and the discovery of Ebola-Reston on two hog farms north of Manila was isolated, the government said.

'There is ongoing viral transmission in Bulacan ... as a precautionary measure, depopulation will be carried out in the Bulacan farm,' Health Secretary Francisco Duque told reporters, referring to the farm just north of Manila.

The government said 6,000 pigs would be killed, burned and buried as experts sought to determine the source of Ebola-Reston in pigs as well as pig-to-pig and from pig-to-human transmission. Mr Duque said 147 human samples have been tested for Ebola, but only six have tested positive. But all six remain healthy, he added.

'Ebola-Reston poses a low risk to human health at this time,' Mr Duque said.

It is the first time the virus has been found outside monkeys and the first time it has been found in pigs. The virus had previously jumped from monkeys to humans but this was the first case of a jump from hogs.

The Ebola-Reston virus was found in the Philippines as early as the late 1980s and 25 people were found infected after contact with sick monkeys. But only one developed flu-like symptoms and later recovered. -- REUTERS

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No Ebola found at pig farms

MANILA - PHILIPPINE health officials have found no cases of the Ebola-Reston virus in two pig farms and slaughterhouses despite earlier reports that the disease had been discovered, an agricultural official said on Friday.

The search has been narrowed to two farms and a quarantine was still being maintained until all animals had been tested and the source of the suspected outbreak found, said Dave Catbagan, head of the Bureau of Animal Industries.

All farmworkers and slaughterhouse employees who handled the pigs from the two farms in Pandi town, Bulacan province, and Manaoag town, Pangasinan province, had tested negative for Ebola-Reston, Mr Catbagan told AFP.

Mr Catbagan said none of the animals tested thus far had the virus.

Earlier, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said Ebola-Reston, a strain of the Ebola virus, had been found at three pig farms north of the Philippine capital, forcing the government to order a temporary ban on pork exports.

The Ebola-Reston strain was accidentally discovered when the government, starting in late August, sent samples of pig blood to US authorities to find a vaccine for another disease killing local pigs.

Six of 24 samples sent to the US tested positive for Ebola-Reston.

Despite the US findings, no new animals have been found with the virus.

'No sick pigs, no sign of critical illnesses of pigs or the human caretakers of these pigs,' said Mr Catbagan.

While the four strains of the Ebola virus found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Ivory Coast and recently Uganda are known to be deadly to humans, the Ebola-Reston virus is not, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Although the Ebola-Reston virus has previously been found in monkeys in the Philippines there were no signs that the pigs at the quarantined farms had contact with monkeys.

Health Department programme manager for Emerging and Re-emerging Diseases Lyndon Leesuy said that, while it was possible for the Ebola-Reston virus to be transferred from pigs to humans, there were no recorded cases in the current suspected outbreak. -- AFP

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