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Friday, March 29, 2024

Makati forms TF ‘Bantay AI’

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The city government of Makati has formed a special team tasked to ensure that poultry products from bird flu-affected provinces are not brought into the city and sold in its public markets.

Dubbed “Task Force Bantay AI,” the team is composed of meat inspectors from the city’s Veterinary Services Office (VSO) who have been mobilized to monitor and check Meat Inspection Certificates in all meat-selling establishments in the city.

The inspection also covers all businesses involved in transporting, storing, receiving, processing, preparation and selling poultry products in Makati.”©

Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay

Acting on the alert order of the National Meat Inspection Service, Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay instructed the team to vigilantly inspect and monitor establishments that sell meat and poultry, including street and ambulant vendors, to prevent consumption of tainted products.

“The heightened alert on meat inspection is a precautionary measure to protect our constituents. We want to make sure that the poultry products in our groceries, public markets and even the small talipapas remain safe for consumption,” Binay said.”©

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Binay also urged establishments that sell meat and poultry to display their Meat Inspection Certificates to show that their wares are “certified clean and virus-free.””©

To raise public awareness, the city chief executive instructed the team to conduct lectures in all public markets to educate chicken vendors on how poultry infected with the bird flu virus looks like. 

She added that the information drive, which started today, August 22, will teach residents how to properly inspect the meat they buy.”©

According to VSO officer-in-charge Katherina Mangahas, the team began inspections on Aug. 18 at Comembo and Tejeros markets. Stalls selling dressed chicken were inspected and their Meat Inspection Certificates were checked to ensure that the chickens being sold did not come from the quarantined areas. 

On Tuesday, the group conducted market inspections and lectures in Guadalupe and Pembo.”©

Mangahas reported that poultry products being sold in these markets were sourced from South Luzon.”©

The city government is also discouraging the sale and movement of live domestic and wild birds and their products including poultry meat, day old chicks, eggs, semen and manure from Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Tarlac, Zambales, and Bataan.”©

After Pampanga, the towns of Jaen and San Isidro in Nueva Ecija have also been placed under a state of calamity after poultry farms have tested positive for the avian flu virus.”©

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