Developing and implementing a protocol for bilateral trade agreements: the Philippines' shift to a risk assessment policy and meeting its challenges

The livestock and poultry industries in the Philippines have been continuously growing for the past six years, as reflected in the Philippine Statistics Authority annual reports from 2013 to 2018. To augment supplies and ensure food sufficiency, as well as to fulfil trade agreements, the government has adopted a policy of importing some livestock commodities. Currently, the Philippines imports about 20% of its total meat requirements, and this figure is expected to increase over the next few years. Private traders and companies could import buffalo meat without restriction until 1996, when the Department of Agriculture (DA) intervened by sending inspection missions to exporting countries due to the concerns of the livestock industry about the foot and mouth disease challenges during that time. But, at that point, there were still no clear rules, regulations or standards governing the importation of meat and meat products into the Philippines. By 2003, as outbreaks of transboundary animal diseases were occurring in the region (avian influenza as well as foot and mouth disease), the government saw the need to protect its borders from the entry, establishment and spread of animal diseases. Measures were needed to prevent the introduction of disease-carrying, contaminated or adulterated meat and meat products that could endanger the lives and health of Filipino consumers and, consequently, have potentially serious economic impacts on the livestock industry and other allied industries. As more and more requests were received to import meat and meat products, and as various stakeholder groups began to question why increasing numbers of imports were being allowed into the country, the DA began to shift to a risk-based policy rather than a policy of 100% inspection. The Philippine Government ensured that there was a legal basis as well as a scientific basis for orders governing the importation of meat and live animals. As the country shifts to a risk-based policy, making the public understand why it is implementing this policy remains a major challenge. Other areas that need to be developed and strengthened include quarantine and border security procedures, certification programmes, identification and traceability, export procedures, periodic auditing schemes, animal health programmes, capacities for risk analysis, and provincial border controls, which can be set by local governments to allow provinces to protect their locality.

Molecular evidence of Ebola Reston virus infection in Philippine bats

BACKGROUND

In 2008-09, evidence of Reston ebolavirus (RESTV) infection was found in domestic pigs and pig workers in the Philippines. With species of bats having been shown to be the cryptic reservoir of filoviruses elsewhere, the Philippine government, in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, assembled a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional team to investigate Philippine bats as the possible reservoir of RESTV.

METHODS

The team undertook surveillance of bat populations at multiple locations during 2010 using both serology and molecular assays.

RESULTS

A total of 464 bats from 21 species were sampled. We found both molecular and serologic evidence of RESTV infection in multiple bat species. RNA was detected with quantitative PCR (qPCR) in oropharyngeal swabs taken from Miniopterus schreibersii, with three samples yielding a product on conventional hemi-nested PCR whose sequences differed from a Philippine pig isolate by a single nucleotide. Uncorroborated qPCR detections may indicate RESTV nucleic acid in several additional bat species (M. australis, C. brachyotis and Ch. plicata). We also detected anti-RESTV antibodies in three bats (Acerodon jubatus) using both Western blot and ELISA.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that ebolavirus infection is taxonomically widespread in Philippine bats, but the evident low prevalence and low viral load warrants expanded surveillance to elaborate the findings, and more broadly, to determine the taxonomic and geographic occurrence of ebolaviruses in bats in the region.

The economic impact of foot and mouth disease control and eradication in the Philippines

The authors evaluate the impact of foot and mouth disease (FMD) and control of the disease in the Philippines using cost-benefit analysis. A scenario in which FMD control is maintained at recent levels with continued presence of the disease is compared to scenarios in which a publicly funded programme achieves eradication by 2005 (current policy objective), 2007 and 2010. Under varying assumptions regarding the development of exports of livestock products following eradication, estimated benefit-cost ratios for the investment in eradication range from 1.6 (2010, no exports) to 12.0 (2005, export of 5,000 tons each of low-value and high-value livestock products annually), indicating eradication to be an economically viable investment. The commercial swine sector is estimated to capture 84% of the benefits generated by the public investment in eradication, versus 4% by backyard swine producers. The implications of these results within the context of regional efforts to control FMD in South-East Asia are explored.