DA monitoring emerging zoonotic diseases

The Department of Agriculture (DA), which now heads the Philippine Inter-Agency Committee on Zoonoses (PhilCZ), said Monday it is monitoring the emerging zoonotic diseases or infections that could spread from animals to humans. 

During the turnover ceremony of the chairmanship of the PhilCZ from the Department of Health (DOH) to the DA, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Constante Palabrica said among the diseases they would focus on are rabies and highly pathogenic avian influenza.

He said the DA will be seeking P20 million to P30 million budget for the purchase of additional anti-rabies vaccine. He said this was already endorsed for the signature of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.

Based on DOH’s latest data, a total of 89 human rabies cases, which all resulted in deaths, were recorded from January 1 to March 16, 2024. 

Soccsksargen logged the highest number of cases at 12. This was followed by Calabarzon and Bicol Region with 11 cases each. 

Eighty-two of these cases also report a history of dog bite, five cases were with history of cat bites, while the remaining two cases report a history of bites from other animals.

Among the total cases, only one case reported that the biting animal was fully vaccinated, 40 cases said the animal was unvaccinated, while the remaining 48 cases involved animals with unknown vaccination status.

As to avian influenza, Palabrica said three companies have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to proceed with the trial of the vaccine. 

“It’s still in process, ‘yung AI na bakuna (this AI vaccine). We’re just waiting for the results of the trial and from that, we can get an approval from the FDA,” he added. 

Aside from these, the Agriculture official said the DA is keeping an eye on the emergence of foot-and-mouth disease and anthrax. 

“As of now, merong emerging diseases…and that is the foot-and-mouth disease. The foot-and-mouth disease, as of now, the Philippines is free. Wala tayong bakuna. Hindi naman ito naita-transfer sa tao,” Palabrica said. 

(Foot-and-mouth disease is an emerging disease. As of now, the Philippines is free of it. We don’t have a vaccine, but this is not transferable to humans.) 

The cases of anthrax in the country, he added, is only currently limited to the northern part of Luzon. He said the DA is ready should this infectious disease spread further. 

“We have the capability to produce the vaccine for anthrax and we can do immediate action against anthrax,” Palabrica said.

In March, the DOH said it was monitoring the anthrax situation in other countries, even as it assured the public that there is very little chance of the disease spreading to the general population.—AOL, GMA Integrated News