Snowy Owl
Retired in 2010, In Memoriam
Pitching for the shrike and the avian flu protection program
vhttp://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/bag/2006/09/12/feat/pitching.for.the.shrike.and.the.avian.flu.protection.program.html
vhttp://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/bag/2006/09/12/feat/pitching.for.the.shrike.and.the.avian.flu.protection.program.html
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
TE-te-te-te-te-te-te-te-tet.
The seasonally familiar sound is shrill, urgent and rapidly repetitive--like the staccato of gunfire.
If you haven't heard it yet, try to listen from now till the next few days. The unmistakable sound begins sooner than or by mid-September.
It's how the noisy brown shrike (Lanius cristatus) announces its arrival, and of thousands of other birds in their annual southward migration, before the snow falls in Siberia, China and other Asian countries in the northern hemisphere.
A host of other species such as the gray heron, a variety of ducks and egrets (tagak), are among those finding their way to various parts of the country during this wintering season, according to Teber Dionisio, senior ecosystem management specialist of the regional parks and wildlife office.
The shrike (Lanius cristatus) chirps mostly at dawn or dusk. Usually, other shrikes nearby answer, perhaps to reassure company for the night or correct flight route and stop-over area. Yet the sound is no longer as frequent.
Over the years, the numbers of migratory birds coming in continue to dwindle, partly due to the dwindling wintering forest grounds, including the pine stands of the Cordillera.
The gray or yellow wagtails, locally called "yadyadan" for balancing like a see-saw while perched on rocks along rivers or forest clearings, are now harder to find. So with the bigger and quieter ones like the blue rock thrush, locally called "aladog". Or the "ki-ling" (Siberian rubythroat) which old village folks swear is the harbinger of the year's last - and strongest - typhoon. Or notwithstanding its name, the common moorhen.
No longer around are the ground-creeping brown warblers. Pony boys at the Wright Park used to snare them with horsetail hair looped into small nooses in the middle of a row of planted sticks. The shrike, known to impale insects before devouring them, used to be caught with traps baited with cockroaches impaled on sticks, like barbecues. Far more destructive than bird traps is the once-common, seasonal "ikik" practice of mountain villagers in this region. "Ikik" hunters would repair to mountainsides where they light campfires at night.
Like sailing ships being guided by lighthouses, birds on flight get drawn to the glow of the campfires. Birds of different colors and sizes get entangled by nets set near the fire, sometimes by the hundreds. Some have bands wrapped around their feet by researchers tracking down their migration routes and "refueling stations."
"They were dressed and then cooked and eaten," noted journalist Alfred Dizon, who witnessed the practice while growing up in Sagada, Mt. Province. "I caught the ire of the hunters for writing against the butchery," he remembers. "Whenever I was home in Sagada, they would avoid me as they would a pariah. But their attitude eventually changed."
Alfred now feels vindicated. The shift in outlook came after the re-emergence in 1997 of the now-dreaded, fowl-borne avian flu virus, specifically the highly pathogenic strain identified as H5N1. Fear of its spread to other fowls - and to humans - triggered the elimination of whole chicken populations in countries where infections were detected.
Saying the flu strain had been found in migratory birds, especially ducks and other water-bound species, researchers repeatedly advise communities to prevent their contact with domesticated fowls.
No direct transmission of the virus from wild birds to humans has been recorded. Still, scientists warn of a possible or probable flu pandemic should genetic changes or mutations within the virus occur that would allow bird-to-human and human-to-human transmission.
The warning apparently has deterred the "ikik" hunting. It's rendering mixed migratory bird meat stew less palatable, not only in Sagada but in other elevated avian migration routes in the Cordillera.
Sagada has an ordinance banning the seasonal bird hunting practice. It's the first town in the country to adopt such mutually protective piece of legislation, said Dr. Tony Bautista of the regional health office.
Bautista and other regional and city health officials were at the City Council Monday to make their own collective, urgent pitch for the passage of a bird flu prevention program with a P11-million budgetary support.
The outlay being asked is far from staggering, Dr. Bautista pointed out. With the city's estimated non-migratory or permanent population of 280,000, it would be broken down to only P39 per person, he said.
He added the city can learn from its experience with the outbreak of meningococcemia the other year.
In response, Councilor Edilberto Tenefrancia said the city's accounts in the bank - which City ccountant Tony Tabin confirmed - may be considered for the outlay.
Avian flu is almost 100 percent fatal to fowls, 54 percent among humans. Medical experts say they can't discount the chances of a pandemic. The worst possible scenario would be six to 12 thousand cases here, Dr. Bautista told the City Council.
Authored by Councilor Erdolfo Balajadia, the anti-flu measure is patterned after the national program that health authorities are aggressively trying to install. Its success, they stressed, depends on community awareness and involvement down to the barangay or grassroots levels.
Dr. Pedro Jerry Baliang, program chair for Regions 1, 2,3 and the Cordillera, assured the team is equipped to determine the presence of avian flu. He reported that quarantine officers are now also in place to monitor the transport of fowls, including game cocks. "'Pinikpikan' (a favorite Igorot chicken dish) is safe, (and) we're (still) a bird-flu country."
The health panel however noted the proximity of the country to Indonesia where cases involving humans were recently recorded. With current cases still being monitored in China, the threat is very much real, Dr. Bautista told the Council.
In batting for the outlay, Dr. Felicidad Ganga, head of the city epidemiology and surveillance unit, and City Veterinarian Brigit Piok, said the "human influenza aspect" has been included in the program.
Ganga stressed the apparatuses needed can be used in the control of other diseases, even as the city may have to stock on anti-flu medicines as it may be hard to come by if needed.
Councilor Antonio Tabora Jr. recommended a closer look into the quarantine for imported fowls, saying game cocks are sometimes released and are in the farms within 24 hours after their arrival at the international airport in Pasay.
He however said all game fowls come from the US - which is also avian flu-free - and do not pass through countries where cases have been recorded.
The Council is set to act on the measure on September 18. By then, the shrike would have chirped its arrival.
Listen, but let and leave it be, bird flu experts advise. (RC)
TE-te-te-te-te-te-te-te-tet.
The seasonally familiar sound is shrill, urgent and rapidly repetitive--like the staccato of gunfire.
If you haven't heard it yet, try to listen from now till the next few days. The unmistakable sound begins sooner than or by mid-September.
It's how the noisy brown shrike (Lanius cristatus) announces its arrival, and of thousands of other birds in their annual southward migration, before the snow falls in Siberia, China and other Asian countries in the northern hemisphere.
A host of other species such as the gray heron, a variety of ducks and egrets (tagak), are among those finding their way to various parts of the country during this wintering season, according to Teber Dionisio, senior ecosystem management specialist of the regional parks and wildlife office.
The shrike (Lanius cristatus) chirps mostly at dawn or dusk. Usually, other shrikes nearby answer, perhaps to reassure company for the night or correct flight route and stop-over area. Yet the sound is no longer as frequent.
Over the years, the numbers of migratory birds coming in continue to dwindle, partly due to the dwindling wintering forest grounds, including the pine stands of the Cordillera.
The gray or yellow wagtails, locally called "yadyadan" for balancing like a see-saw while perched on rocks along rivers or forest clearings, are now harder to find. So with the bigger and quieter ones like the blue rock thrush, locally called "aladog". Or the "ki-ling" (Siberian rubythroat) which old village folks swear is the harbinger of the year's last - and strongest - typhoon. Or notwithstanding its name, the common moorhen.
No longer around are the ground-creeping brown warblers. Pony boys at the Wright Park used to snare them with horsetail hair looped into small nooses in the middle of a row of planted sticks. The shrike, known to impale insects before devouring them, used to be caught with traps baited with cockroaches impaled on sticks, like barbecues. Far more destructive than bird traps is the once-common, seasonal "ikik" practice of mountain villagers in this region. "Ikik" hunters would repair to mountainsides where they light campfires at night.
Like sailing ships being guided by lighthouses, birds on flight get drawn to the glow of the campfires. Birds of different colors and sizes get entangled by nets set near the fire, sometimes by the hundreds. Some have bands wrapped around their feet by researchers tracking down their migration routes and "refueling stations."
"They were dressed and then cooked and eaten," noted journalist Alfred Dizon, who witnessed the practice while growing up in Sagada, Mt. Province. "I caught the ire of the hunters for writing against the butchery," he remembers. "Whenever I was home in Sagada, they would avoid me as they would a pariah. But their attitude eventually changed."
Alfred now feels vindicated. The shift in outlook came after the re-emergence in 1997 of the now-dreaded, fowl-borne avian flu virus, specifically the highly pathogenic strain identified as H5N1. Fear of its spread to other fowls - and to humans - triggered the elimination of whole chicken populations in countries where infections were detected.
Saying the flu strain had been found in migratory birds, especially ducks and other water-bound species, researchers repeatedly advise communities to prevent their contact with domesticated fowls.
No direct transmission of the virus from wild birds to humans has been recorded. Still, scientists warn of a possible or probable flu pandemic should genetic changes or mutations within the virus occur that would allow bird-to-human and human-to-human transmission.
The warning apparently has deterred the "ikik" hunting. It's rendering mixed migratory bird meat stew less palatable, not only in Sagada but in other elevated avian migration routes in the Cordillera.
Sagada has an ordinance banning the seasonal bird hunting practice. It's the first town in the country to adopt such mutually protective piece of legislation, said Dr. Tony Bautista of the regional health office.
Bautista and other regional and city health officials were at the City Council Monday to make their own collective, urgent pitch for the passage of a bird flu prevention program with a P11-million budgetary support.
The outlay being asked is far from staggering, Dr. Bautista pointed out. With the city's estimated non-migratory or permanent population of 280,000, it would be broken down to only P39 per person, he said.
He added the city can learn from its experience with the outbreak of meningococcemia the other year.
In response, Councilor Edilberto Tenefrancia said the city's accounts in the bank - which City ccountant Tony Tabin confirmed - may be considered for the outlay.
Avian flu is almost 100 percent fatal to fowls, 54 percent among humans. Medical experts say they can't discount the chances of a pandemic. The worst possible scenario would be six to 12 thousand cases here, Dr. Bautista told the City Council.
Authored by Councilor Erdolfo Balajadia, the anti-flu measure is patterned after the national program that health authorities are aggressively trying to install. Its success, they stressed, depends on community awareness and involvement down to the barangay or grassroots levels.
Dr. Pedro Jerry Baliang, program chair for Regions 1, 2,3 and the Cordillera, assured the team is equipped to determine the presence of avian flu. He reported that quarantine officers are now also in place to monitor the transport of fowls, including game cocks. "'Pinikpikan' (a favorite Igorot chicken dish) is safe, (and) we're (still) a bird-flu country."
The health panel however noted the proximity of the country to Indonesia where cases involving humans were recently recorded. With current cases still being monitored in China, the threat is very much real, Dr. Bautista told the Council.
In batting for the outlay, Dr. Felicidad Ganga, head of the city epidemiology and surveillance unit, and City Veterinarian Brigit Piok, said the "human influenza aspect" has been included in the program.
Ganga stressed the apparatuses needed can be used in the control of other diseases, even as the city may have to stock on anti-flu medicines as it may be hard to come by if needed.
Councilor Antonio Tabora Jr. recommended a closer look into the quarantine for imported fowls, saying game cocks are sometimes released and are in the farms within 24 hours after their arrival at the international airport in Pasay.
He however said all game fowls come from the US - which is also avian flu-free - and do not pass through countries where cases have been recorded.
The Council is set to act on the measure on September 18. By then, the shrike would have chirped its arrival.
Listen, but let and leave it be, bird flu experts advise. (RC)