The Northern part of Luzon, Philippines’ biggest island has been challenged early this year by Newcastle disease (ND) which resulted in significant damages that left farmers grasping for answers and remedies. 

  

In response to numerous requests for assistance, Ceva Animal Health Philippines immediately went out to investigate reports. The Philippine government, through the Bureau of Animal Industry has actively sought Ceva’s expert opinion and assistance on the virus which we identified to be Genotype VIIi.  The local Ceva team proudly emphasized that Ceva ND vaccine users had very low casualty reports with 85% of Transmune users already using it with Vectormune ND (under the Perfect Pair program).

Ceva stepped up the support to poultry industry key stakeholders as it intensified aid to farm partners through visits, necropsies, lab tests and recently, a continuing education tour on the ND problem. This endeavor involved tackling issues head on as authorities in poultry diseases were invited to share their experiences. The series of seminars kicked off in Manila in April 5 with two speakers, Dr Dennis Umali of the University of the Philippines Los Banos entitled “Advances in Disease Diagnosis in Poultry and Livestock” where he tackled topics relative to DNA sequencing, and our very own Dr Christophe Cazaban, Knowledge Manager, Innovation Strategy Department, Ceva Sante Animale, who shared ideas through his topic “Newcastle Disease Control and Prevention: A New Perspective”. The guests were composed of poultry key opinion leaders mainly veterinarians (KOL) handling cases involving a substantial number of birds.

Visits to key provinces in the islands of Visayas and Mindanao followed in succeeding days which were well-attended and the level of engagement was high. The local Veterinary Technical Services Managers Dr Mel Umandal and Dr Jay Peria also contributed presentations to help the Visayas and Mindanao veterinarians fight against and prepare for ND challenges better.