Download PDF - SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center

24 BIO LIFE January – March 2005
Photos by JOE GALVEZ
The Philippines
as Asia’s agri-trade center
By ROJA SALVADOR
IMAGINE the Philippines as a center of
agricultural trade in Asia. We could be exporting
200 million chickens to our Asian
neighbors. We can also be the source of beef
and beef products of Japan and other Asian
countries. But all these could happen only if
the Philippines can maximize its food security
program. Biotechnology can be its cutting
edge.
The Philippines remains as the only
country in Asia that is free from avian flu or
“bird flu”. All our Asian neighbors are infected
with the highly pathogenic avian flu. If the
Philippines remains bird-flu free, then it will
be the source of poultry supply of its neighbors.
Moreover, Japan, after having two incidences
of Bovine Spongiform
Encephatology (BSE)–a cattle disease that
can be transmitted to human—is eyeing the
Philippines as its source of beef and beef
products. This is only possible if we are capable
of detecting animal disease even before
it reaches enters the Philippines and if
our standards of testing meat and animals
are globally accepted. Such a tough job falls
on the lap of the Department of Agriculture’s
Bureau of Animal Industry-Philippine Animal
Health Center Biotechnology Project.
Through that center’s project titled, “Enhancing
Biotechnology Laboratory Capabilities
for Animal Disease Diagnosis, Control,
Prevention and Improved Livestock Production,”
the Philippines is envisioned to achieve
globally-accepted standards of testing animal
diseases. Through the use of biotechnology,
the center can detect animal diseases and
find cures faster and more accurately.
The Department of Agriculture aims to
improve poultry and livestock production in
the Philippines. The Biotechnology Experimental
Laboratory Animal Section (BELAS)
is manned by two women: project leader Dra.
Calcita M. Morales and co-project leader
Dra. Cynthia Nalo-Ochona. They have undergone
training in various countries to make
sure that their testing procedures would be
accepted internationally. Their mission is to
conduct tests on animal diseases in order to
learn how to prevent these even before they
reach the country and to find cures to the
existing diseases even before they spread
in the country.
The team has already collected brain
samples to detect BSE or the mad cow disease,
which affects the cow’s central nervous
system. The disease can be transferred to
human beings when the infected cow’s meat
is eaten. At present, no incidence of BSE has