The Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas (DA-6) is waiting for the official announcement of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) declaring Roxas City, the capital of Capiz province, as bird flu-free.

“We are thankful that it did not spread. We are just waiting for the official declaration,” Engineer Jose Albert Barrogo, regional executive director of DA-6, said in an interview yesterday.

Barrogo added that the test results from the surveillance they conducted from December 2022 to February 2023 were all negative.

The surveillance was conducted after the first positive case was recorded in the city’s Barangay Cagay last December.

“We closed the infected farm and had it disinfected. We depopulated within a one kilometer radius,” he said.

He added that samples were also taken from within a one-kilometer radius, which expanded to seven kilometers, and the results were all negative.

Five samples from a secluded farm in Cagay were the first recorded cases of the Influenza Virus Type A (IVA) subtype H5N1 in Roxas.

The H5N1 virus is highly contagious among birds and can be deadly, especially for domestic poultry, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (PNA)