Epidemics

The Philippines... couldn’t just depend solely on poultry exportation to earn the sufficient amount of dollar to fill up it's nearly exhausted 'piggy bank'...

...Philippine human exports have been gradually increasing through the years leaving the one thousand one hundred and eight islands brain-drained!

Before I decided to come to Australia I had spent my last twenty-six months in the Philippines as a veterinary epidemiologist in a swine integrator. I was there to monitor 22 breeding farms, 11 nursery stations and 149 growing farms of the company. As a member of the animal health services group, I was busy visiting farms five days in a week, while spending the remaining two days for regular meeting, thinking, planning and decision-making. (Of course while I'm driving from farm A to farm B, and to farm C it’s the best time to ponder about my tasks, as well.)

IN AUSTRALiA. I’ve been working as a livestock farm overseer for twenty six months now; and during my first year of work in a piggery farm in Queensland, the veterinary consultant had only been there twice for a visit! I’ve been in this chicken farm for 14 months already (as a part of a team that produces 1,000,000 chooks every 60 days) but I haven’t seen even a single vet visiting just to simply say “Hi!” to these poor (rich?) birds!

Australian piggeries and poultries don’t need a close monitoring and regular surveillance of a veterinary epidemiologist, anyway, because for 776 days of my stay in this country, I’ve only seen nutritionally- and stress-induced scouring in pigs, and genetically- or nutritionally-related lameness in chickens! What a boring life!

Australian livestock farmers are complaining, though, because for ages, their government has been very stringent with their genetic importation laws—the reason why the genes of their stocks have been relatively getting worse. Based on my personal observations, I agree with these farmers. While the Philippines has been continuously producing lean finisher pigs having a well-trimmed belly with a broad shoulders and hams, Australian pigs are lamentably saggy having large bellies with tapered shoulders and hams, others actually have unhealthy hooves because of poor genetics.

YES, PHILIPPINES HAS the capability of producing muscular pigs because our importation laws has been allowing us to import the best genetic stocks from other countries, possibly (definitely?) up to the point that our sea- and airports become very imprudent. Proper quarantine and biosecurity measures could be sometimes (?) ignored, tolerating the entry of those disease-laden live animals, meat, eggs, milk and milk products, etc.

Our virology professor once said that, “All animal diseases are present in the Philippines, except rinderpest!” Name it, we have it. Whoowow! A Filipino veterinary medical student couldn’t help but feel the excitement that someday he could possibly become one of the best veterinarians in the world—a globally-competitive vet for the reason that every disease encountered in the field would gradually equate to expertise.

The Philippines has been modestly exporting poultry to Japan because it is boasting its freedom from avian influenza (or bird flu; and if this is virologically true I must be very proud). However, last December 2008 I was saddened by the news regarding the outbreak of Reston Ebolavirus in pigs of Luzon; and recently 6,000 hogs were humanely slaughtered and burned in Pandi, Bulacan as part of the measures to control the above-mentioned, dreaded viral disease of swine nowadays.

DESPITE THOSE undesirable physical features of the hogs in Australia, these relatively small, family-owned piggeries and dairy farms here are very fortunate to be granted with the important documents allowing them the mass exportation of live animals, pork, milk and dairy products, etc. in New Zealand, Singapore, and more... This is because animal diseases with biosecurity concerns are nonexistent in Australia.

The Philippines, however, couldn’t just depend on poultry exportation alone to earn the sufficient amount of dollar to save its sinking economy. Instead, the Philippine government is very proud of exporting its agriculturists and licensed veterinarians to work as livestock farm attendants in various 'critical animal disease-free' countries worldwide where their scientific knowledge is only indirectly necessary. Philippine human exports have been gradually increasing through the years leaving the one thousand one hundred and seven (...eight during low tide) islands brain-drained!

Brain... Filipinos are known to be brainy. Filipino veterinary epidemiologists and medical practitioners are very good in the prevention and control, as well as in the treatment of various zoonosis because they’ve been well-exposed and experienced since college days.

There is an ‘epidemic disease’ in the Philippine society, however, that doesn’t need globally competent veterinary and medical practitioners. The ‘causative agent’, preventive and control measures are already known but nobody would dare to administer the most effective treatment to this ‘communicable viral disease’ of our country...

...just wondering why can’t we humanely slaughter and literally burn all those who are infected with the ‘virus’?