Joint EO issued to avert bird flu spread

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez on Dec 13, 2022 issued a joint executive order meant to stop the spread of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) or bird flu.

Joint Executive Order No. 2 bans the entry of all live domestic and wild birds, ready to lay pullets and their products including table eggs and manure into the Province of Negros Occidental and the City of Bacolod from Luzon, Panay, Guimaras, and Mindanao amid the continued spread and increasing cases of HPAI.

The JEO took effect immediately.

A total ban will be imposed on other areas in the Visayas with high probable cases of HPAI.

Earlier, the Negros Occidental provincial government imposed a total ban on the entry of live birds and poultry products such as meat and eggs from areas affected by the bird flu, including Luzon, Mindanao, and the neighboring islands of Panay and Guimaras.

The ban took effect immediately after the province released a copy of Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson’s Executive Order (EO) 22-42 on Tuesday night.

“(This is) to safeguard the poultry industry as well as to protect the general public from the effects of the bird flu disease,” Lacson said.

Negros Occidental is home to a PHP8-billion poultry industry and is among the top poultry-producing provinces in the country.

The governor stressed that the provincial government reserves the right to impose a total ban on other areas in the Visayas with suspected bird flu cases.

But there are exemptions to the ban and certain products will be allowed entry regardless of shipping origin subject to compliance with requirements, the EO 22-42 added.

Negros Occidental will allow regulated entry of birds and their products from bird flu-free areas.