Manila - Experts from three UN health agencies have arrived in the Philippines to investigate an outbreak of the airborne Ebola-Reston virus at two pig farms north of Manila. This was the first time globally that this virus was found in pigs.
The virus was was identified from sick pigs in three provinces in the Philippines. The farms at Santo Nino and Piunagpanaan have been quarantined and the Philippine government has stopped exporting pigs from October last year. There is no vaccine against it.
WHO said that this was the first time globally that domestic pigs -
i.e. food-producing animals eaten by humans - were ever reported to have been infected with any Ebola virus and that this jump from one species to the next had to be investigated thoroughly. Ebola-Reston is only found in the Philippines and previously only in monkeys. The only available information on its origin states that Ebola-Reston 'was first detected in 1989 in laboratory monkeys sent from the Philippines to Reston in the United States". This remains deeply mysterious since Ebola had up to that point, only been identified in equatorial regions of Africa.
Airborne virus:
What also makes it so unusual is that it is airborne - unlike the African Ebola strains, which are carried through bodily fluids.
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It has now jumped species, WHO said, and this worried them - although they also hastened to add that this strain was not dangerous to humans - unlike the African Ebola. Pigs in three provinces -- Nueva Ecija, Bulacan and Pangasinan -- were also found to be co-infected with Porcine Respiratory Reproductive Syndrome (PRRS) virus.
25 people had antibodies of Ebola-Reston in Philippines
During the Ebola-Reston outbreaks in Philippine monkeys in the 1990s, people who had had close contact with sick monkeys were tested and a small number (around 25) were found to have antibodies against Ebola Reston. This means they had been infected by the virus and their body had produced an immune response.
However, only one person had mild, flu-like symptoms. This person fully recovered.
The other people who tested positive for antibodies did not have any symptoms or illness. There is no vaccine against it.Nevertheless, WHO also warned that meat from any sick or found-dead animals should never be eaten.
The virus was discovered since May last year, after the Philippines veterinary service started investigating the unusually high rates of sickness and deaths in local pigs.
.At the moment, there are no reports of unusual illness or deaths in pigs on these affected farms - nor nationwide.
Ebola-Reston, which is only found in
the Philippines, had initially only been confined to monkeys -- this latest outbreak was the first time it jumped species.
The
Food and Agriculture Organisation and the
World Organisation for Animal Health are also represented in the combined UN mission.
"The fact that this is the first time that the virus has been found outside monkeys, and the first time ever, worldwide, that it has been found in swine, a food-producing animal, makes this mission particularly important," a WHO statement said.
It added the case had "potential implications for animal and human health and welfare."
The UN team said they were 'all set to work with its Philipino counterparts over 10 days to establish the source of the virus, its transmission, its virulence and its natural habitat."
This information was needed so that the appropriate guidance for animal and human health protection could be given. It would take at least several weeks before they could publish the preliminary results.
