Thousands of ducks and quails were culled because of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 strain or bird flu in some areas in Luzon.

In a radio interview, Bureau of Animal Industry Director Reildrin Morales confirmed that there were a total of 45,000 ducks and quails that were culled in the province of Bulacan and Pampanga.

"Culled ducks are around 6,000 while the rest are quails, so we think it will not have too much effect on our supply with one duck farm and four quail affected," he said.

Despite monitored cases of bird flu in some areas, Morales assures the public that the government has funds.

"Our government has resources available. That is why we report to the World Organization for Animal Health. This is the counterpart of WHO at the global level... with that we have available resources that we can mobilize," he said.

"So technically with that report we have declared that we have H5N1 and by virtue of that declaration we can tap quick response fund of the DA for the farmers affected," he added.

Morales said the compensation for small birds like quails is amounting to 15 pesos each while 100 pesos each for ducks and chicken. He said based on their monitoring chickens were not affected by the virus.

He assures the public that eating infected bird meat will not affect humans but transmission of the virus to human are possible through handling of infected fowls. Robina Asido/DMS