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Philippines appeals for help in probing pig virus

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-20 07:54

The Philippine government has appealed for international help in investigating an outbreak of the Ebola Reston virus that has for the first time infected pigs but is not harmful to humans, officials said on Friday.

Bureau of Animal Industry Director Davinio Catbagan this week wrote to the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization requesting official assistance, after authorities quarantined three hog farms in the northern Philippines.

The Agriculture Department said in a statement it sent 28 pigs' tissue samples for testing to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in the US and six were found positive.

Dr. Angel Mateo, director of the bureau's Animal Welfare Division, said Friday no pigs had died of Ebola Reston and a second round of local tests showed animals were no longer infected.

"At the moment, the test results from the quarantined area are negative," he said, adding more tests were planned.

Authorities say the Ebola Reston virus - first discovered among crab-eating monkeys south of Manila in 1989 - has caused no known illness among humans. But this is the first time the virus has infected pigs.

Ebola's three other subtypes - the Zaire, Sudan and Cote d'Ivoire strains - can cause deadly hemorrhagic fever in humans, according to the World Health Organization.

"We're treating this as a matter of low public health risk," said Caroline-Ann Coulombe, a WHO officer in Manila. "But this is a new animal species (to be infected), and in the Philippines particularly swine are in contact with humans and we do feel it needs more investigation."

She said the WHO was awaiting an official invitation to send a team of experts to the Philippines.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the Philippine government waited until Dec 10 to make the presence of the virus public, although Manila authorities were notified as early as Oct 30.

The health and agriculture secretaries took pains to assure the public that pork is safe to eat if it is cooked well - even munching on roast pig during a Dec 10 news conference.

In the letter to FAO, Catbagan said the Philippines has consistently acted in a "transparent and responsible" manner in dealing with the outbreak.