When to Call the LGU Vet: Thirteen Notifiable Diseases, and What Actually Starts the Clock

Thirteen, and the circular that says so

Ask which diseases a keeper is obliged to report and the answer has a document behind it. That document is DA Administrative Circular No. 08, s. 2021, Revised Guidelines on the Reporting of Notifiable Animal Diseases to the Competent Veterinary Authority, signed by Secretary William D. Dar on 11 August 2021. Its § 4 gives the list by species. The avian block holds thirteen entries, and it defines the term it is listing at § 3.1: animal diseases “required by law to be reported to the Bureau of Animal Industry”.

Being on that list and being at the top of the Bureau’s working queue are two different things, and BAI publishes both.

Those five come from § 5.5 of BAI Memorandum Circular No. 30, s. 2024, and the circular says where it got them: § 4.2 states that the list “was compiled by referencing DA AC No. 08, S. 2021, and other notable policies of DA and BAI, the WOAH notifiable animal diseases, and through interagency collaboration”. So the five are a working priority stacked on top of the thirteen.

What the 2021 circular took off the list

The amendment chain is in the circular’s own whereas clauses, in one sentence: “WHEREAS, DA Administrative Circular No. 3 Series of 2018 was issued to amend the DA Administrative Order (AO) No. 01 Series of 2012, on ‘Declaring the List of Notifiable Animal Diseases’, using the OIE-Listed diseases as reference and needs to be updated due to modifications done by the OIE”. Two amendments, then, between the 2012 order most Philippine writing still quotes and the list in force today.

Fourteen avian entries in 2012, less fowl cholera and Marek’s disease, plus the one wild-bird influenza entry that 2021 added: 13. The two that came off are the two an ordinary bakuran is most likely to actually meet. Marek’s is a hatchery question in practice, and what the state publishes about that sits on the vaccination page. Fowl cholera turns up in the pillar’s own differential quote, where BAI names it among the diseases it tests for after a negative avian influenza result, so it stayed inside the Bureau’s laboratory work while leaving the reporting list. The disease pillar prints that quote in full.

The circular says why the list moved. The whereas clause above says the update was made “due to modifications done by the OIE”, and WOAH’s Article 1.3.6 does carry fourteen avian entries with neither of the two among them. All fourteen were read, and so were the twenty-five multiple-species entries of Article 1.3.1 in case either disease had been shifted there. So the gap between the Philippine list of 2012 and the international one was a matter of dates, and the 2021 amendment closed it.

The copy of the 2012 order quoted here is the Supreme Court E-Library’s, printed in NAR Vol. 23 No. 1 for January to March 2012 and signed by Secretary Proceso J. Alcala.

The 2021 circular then concedes, in its last whereas clause, exactly the thing a backyard keeper is about to run into: “WHEREAS, there are emerging and re-emerging local diseases particularly besetting the Philippine livestock and poultry industry which do not appear in the OIE list and close attention should be made to address these diseases.”

Kailan ba talaga dapat tumawag?

Ganito karaniwang dumarating ang tanong. Kagabi dalawa ang namatay sa kulungan, kaninang umaga tatlo pa, at wala kang maisip na dahilan. Bago pa lahat iyan, may isang manok na tumigil sa pagkain noong Linggo. Hindi mo alam kung ano ang tawag doon, at ayaw mong maging abala sa opisina para sa isang bagay na baka wala naman palang kuwenta. Nasa isip mo ang natitirang mga manok sa kulungan, at nasa isip mo rin ang perang nailagay mo sa kanila. Nagtatanong ka muna sa kapitbahay bago sa opisina, kasi ganoon talaga ang unang hakbang ng karamihan.

The circular has already answered that, and it answered it without asking for a diagnosis. Section 7 of DA AC 08, s. 2021 sets out the reporting scheme, and its first sub-item reads: “Any unusual clustering of similar symptoms or syndromes or more than the perceived mortalities/morbidities that are yet unknown in origin shall also be considered notifiable to consider emerging and re-emerging diseases.” The next one says where it goes: “These shall be directly reported to the Veterinary Offices of the Local Government Units, DARFOs and BAI for disease investigation and confirmation.” Section 7’s sub-items are numbered 1.1 through 1.7 rather than 7.1 through 7.7, which is a slip in the printing and not in the rule.

That clause is the older parent of MC 30 § 8.2 from 2024, the one most Philippine reporting advice quotes, and the Newcastle page quotes the 2024 wording. The 24-hour window and the three offices you may ring belong to the disease pillar, which sets them out in full.

What the clause looks for is a pattern: several birds, close together, and no explanation you can give for it. Apat na bagay lang ang dala mo sa tawag. Ilang manok ang namatay. Ilang araw ang inabot. Ano ang nakita mo sa kanila bago sila namatay. At may nawalan din ba sa kapitbahay o sa kabilang purok nitong nakaraang linggo. Kung isa o dalawa lang sa apat na iyan ang alam mo, tumawag ka pa rin, kasi trabaho na ng dumating ang natitira. Hindi naman pagsusulit ang isang tawag.

What the state does once a disease is named

Once a report lands and the disease gets a name, the response differs by name, and BAI Memorandum Circular No. 21, s. 2025 is where that is written down. Signed on 16 June 2025, it sorts the priority diseases into five classifications at § 3.1, and § 3.3 is the one a backyard keeper is most likely to land in: “Assigned to Farm-level Action Diseases (A) - diseases that are manageable at the farm level under local official supervision. These require regular reporting to local veterinary authorities, as well as implementation of farm-level monitoring and biosecurity programs.”

Four of the five poultry entries carry a category there. Fowl typhoid and pullorum disease is the fifth, and Table 4.1’s own footnote 2 names four diseases that were dropped from column A because “these diseases can be managed at the farm level and reporting to veterinary authorities is not required (Trypanosoma, tick-borne diseases, fasciolosis, and old screwworm)”. Fowl typhoid and pullorum is not one of the four. What that means is narrow: the 2025 categorisation places four of the five and the fifth is unplaced in it. Both diseases are still separate entries in DA AC 08, s. 2021 § 4, and the categorisation reaches only its own five categories.

What the list does not name, and where that goes

Read those documents together and a keeper with a sick flock is still holding the wrong end of the problem. What the state publishes is a set of names. What a bakuran hands you is a bird behaving oddly, and the names come later or never. Ang dumarating ay isang manok na ayaw nang tumayo, o isang inahin na buong umagang nakatalikod sa pagkain. So the table below starts at the presentation and ends at the page that owns it.

Of the seven rows, the first two are reached by the lists directly. For the other five I read the avian block of the 2012 order, § 4 of DA AC 08, s. 2021, and §§ 5.5, 6 and 7 of MC 30, s. 2024 entry by entry. None of the five is named in any of the three. WOAH’s Article 1.3.6 is not one of the three, because a Philippine reporting duty is not owed to it.

Every “not named” above is a read of the three documents named in the paragraph above this table, not an inference from their silence.

For the half of the question that comes before any of it, the biosecurity page covers how disease reaches a bakuran in the first place.

Read the table the wrong way and it becomes permission to stay quiet. The bottom five rows turn into the top row the moment several birds go the same way in the same week. The pattern rule does not ask what the cause was. It asks how many, over how long, and whether you can explain it.

First of thirty-six, last of thirty-six, and both still owe a call

Appendix A of MC 30, s. 2024 is headed List of Priority Animal Diseases Based on the Weighted Criteria, and it is a ranked table of 36 animal diseases in three colour-coded bands: High at 1 to 4, Medium at 5 to 27, Low at 28 to 36. Avian influenza is number 1, above anthrax and rabies. Avian mycoplasmosis is number 36, the last line on the page. Newcastle sits at 14, fowl typhoid and pullorum at 24, laryngotracheitis at 30. Five poultry entries, spread across the whole length of one government list.

The two totals in that circular reconcile. Its § 5 enumerates 34 diseases across eight species headings, and Appendix A ranks 36. The two extra are caprine arthritis-encephalitis and bluetongue, and the appendix’s own footnotes 12 and 13 explain them: each “is not included on the primary List of BAI Priority Diseases but has been appended to the risk evaluation because of its significant impact on trade”. The same appendix prints one entry as “Old Worm Screwworm” at rank 20, a transposition of the old world screwworm the rest of the document handles correctly.

How the order was arrived at is described in MC 21, s. 2025, which says its predecessor used “a multi-criteria decision analysis and informed by experts’ judgement from BAI technical officers on animal health, border control, and animal disease diagnostics, evaluating over 100 reportable WoAH diseases based on zoonotic potential, socio economic impact, urgency of disease reporting, and laboratory capacity”. Four criteria, one of which is the state’s own laboratory capacity. A rank is therefore partly a statement about what the Bureau can do, not only about what a disease does to birds.

A rank tells you what happens after a disease already has a name. It has nothing to say about whether the call was owed. The obligation fires earlier, on the pattern; the diagnosis is a separate question, and the ranking never touches § 7 item 1.1. Reading rank 36 as a reason to sit tight inverts the document: mycoplasmosis is last on a priority table and still an entry on a notifiable list, and § 12.1 of MC 30 repeals only what is “in conflict with or inconsistent with” it. A five-name priority list is not inconsistent with a thirteen-name notifiable list. Nothing came off the thirteen in 2024.

What usually goes wrong

1. The mistake: Working from the 2012 order because it is the copy that comes up first.

   Do this instead: Use DA Administrative Circular No. 08, s. 2021 § 4. It is two amendments newer and it is the list in force.

   The 2012 order was amended by DA AC No. 3 s. 2018 and again by DA AC No. 08 s. 2021, and the 2021 circular says so in its own whereas clause. Fowl cholera and Marek’s disease are on the older list only.

2. The mistake: Reading a low Appendix A rank as a sign the disease is not worth a call.

   Do this instead: Treat the rank as a description of the response, not of the duty. Avian mycoplasmosis is 36 of 36 and still an entry on the notifiable list.

   MC 30 § 12.1 repeals only what conflicts with it, and a priority ranking is not a shorter list. The ranking sorts what the Bureau does after a name exists.

3. The mistake: Waiting a few more days to see whether the rest of the flock goes the same way.

   Do this instead: Ring on the pattern you already have. Two or three unexplained deaths in a week is the pattern.

   DA AC 08 s. 2021 § 7 item 1.1 makes an unusual cluster notifiable before anybody can say what it is, and waiting spends the six-hour window the laboratory sets for gross pathology. The birds that died on Tuesday cannot be examined on Friday.

4. The mistake: Holding the report back until somebody can say what the disease is.

   Do this instead: Report the signs, the count and the dates. The investigation supplies the name.

   Section 7 item 1.2 sends an unexplained cluster straight to the LGU veterinary office, the DA regional field office and BAI "for disease investigation and confirmation". Confirmation is what the report produces.

Bakit 6 hours lang ang laboratoryo?

Because the laboratory published its own acceptance criteria, and they are tighter than the reporting window by a wide margin. BAI’s Citizen’s Charter 2024, 3rd Edition, pages 173 to 176, describe the Animal Disease Diagnostic Services of the Veterinary Laboratory Division and its Animal Disease Diagnosis and Reference Laboratory. The service is classified Highly Technical, and the people who may avail of it are listed as “External Clients”. A keeper is one of those.

Then the grid. For gross pathology the laboratory accepts “live or dead animals not more than 6 hours from time of death”, and the column headed Sample Required (Not Less Than) asks for 3-5 specimens. Tissues for bacteriological test and antibiotic sensitivity, water samples and bacteriological swabs are “submitted on Monday to Wednesday only”. Tissues for bacteriological work travel “chilled not frozen”, with “coolant or ice packs during transport”. A rabies submission is the exception the grid writes down: brain or head, “chilled or frozen for not more than 6 hours after death”.

The paperwork on the same pages is where the phone call and the laboratory meet. A submission needs a “Properly filled Laboratory Examination Request Form (LERF)”, and where applicable an endorsement, a Disease Investigation Form and a Sample Collection Form. The charter says where the endorsement comes from: “Endorsement secured at LGUs, RADDLs, or VQS”. The endorsement is an LGU document, which is why the phone call comes before the trip: it is the call that produces the paper the laboratory asks for at the counter. Kaya tawag muna, tapos biyahe.

The charter times the counter work step by step and totals it at 64 minutes on page 179, and the cell says in its own words that the duration of the examination sits outside that total. So the queue is timed and the answer is not.

I could not open a national directory of LGU veterinary offices: the National Meat Inspection Service list of 2014 returns HTTP 403 and ahwd.bai.gov.ph no longer resolves. So the office to ring is the one the pillar names, and the nearest person is still the fastest.

Dalawang orasan po ang tumatakbo dito, at magkaiba ang bilis nila. The reporting clock is 24 hours. The laboratory’s clock is six, counted from the time of death, not from the moment you decided the flock was in trouble. Ang mas maikli ang nauuna, at iyon ang nagdedesisyon kung kailan ka tatawag.

The call you can make now

The decision has a clock attached to it, and the clock is not the twenty-four hours. A hen that died at noon is a specimen the laboratory can still work on until roughly six in the evening. After that she is a description, and a description is what the investigation has to make do with: a report of what you saw, when the laboratory could have had tissues.

So the question is not whether three dead birds are serious enough to bother an office with. That one was settled in 2021 by a clause that asks only for a cluster. Kagabi lang nangyari ang una, malabo pa sa iyo ang lahat, at ganoon talaga sa simula. Walang nag-aalaga ng manok na sigurado sa unang araw. The question is narrower: whether the call goes out while the birds that died are still evidence, or tomorrow morning, when the same call becomes a much weaker thing. Both calls are made in good faith. Only one of them can be answered by a laboratory.

There is a reason the state wants it at all, and this site has already counted the cost of not getting it. G-6 in the register of missing figures counts backyard deaths that never reach a report, and its status there is permanent, because a death nobody reports cannot later be recovered from any dataset. Every uncalled morning is one more row that will never exist.

Six hours. That is the only figure on this page with a clock attached to it.

Questions people actually ask

Which chicken diseases are notifiable in the Philippines?

Thirteen avian entries, in section 4 of DA Administrative Circular No. 08, s. 2021, signed on 11 August 2021. In the document's own order they are avian chlamydiosis, avian infectious bronchitis, avian infectious laryngotracheitis, avian mycoplasmosis (Mycoplasma gallisepticum), avian mycoplasmosis (Mycoplasma synoviae), duck virus hepatitis, fowl typhoid, infection with avian influenza viruses, infection with influenza A viruses of high pathogenicity in birds other than poultry including wild birds, infection with Newcastle disease virus, infectious bursal disease (Gumboro disease), pullorum disease, and turkey rhinotracheitis. That circular amends DA AC No. 3 s. 2018, which amended BAI Administrative Order No. 01 s. 2012.

Do I have to know what the disease is before I report it? Show the answer

No. Section 7 item 1.1 of DA Administrative Circular No. 08, s. 2021 states that "any unusual clustering of similar symptoms or syndromes or more than the perceived mortalities/morbidities that are yet unknown in origin shall also be considered notifiable to consider emerging and re-emerging diseases", and item 1.2 sends that report to the veterinary offices of the local government units, the DA regional field offices and BAI. The trigger is the pattern, and no disease name has to be attached to it. The disease pillar carries the 24-hour window and the offices to ring.

Which chicken diseases came off the Philippine notifiable list? Show the answer

Fowl cholera and Marek's disease. Both are in the avian block of BAI Administrative Order No. 01, s. 2012, which has fourteen avian entries, and neither appears in section 4 of DA Administrative Circular No. 08, s. 2021, which has thirteen. Both are off WOAH's Article 1.3.6 as well, and the 2021 circular's own whereas clause says the Philippine list was being updated "due to modifications done by the OIE". Coming off the notifiable list changes who you owe a report to. It does not make either disease less able to kill a backyard flock, and an unusual cluster of deaths is reportable whatever its cause turns out to be.

How fast does a dead chicken have to reach the laboratory? Show the answer

Six hours. BAI's Citizen's Charter 2024, 3rd Edition, pages 173 to 176, set the acceptance criteria for its own Animal Disease Diagnosis and Reference Laboratory, and the gross pathology row reads "live or dead animals not more than 6 hours from time of death", at least 3 to 5 specimens. Samples for bacteriological test and antibiotic sensitivity, water samples and bacteriological swabs are "submitted on Monday to Wednesday only", and swabs and tissues alike travel "chilled not frozen" with "coolant or ice packs during transport". The reporting clock is 24 hours and the laboratory's is six, so the shorter one decides the day.

Is a low-ranked disease still reportable? Show the answer

Yes. Appendix A of BAI Memorandum Circular No. 30, s. 2024 ranks 36 animal diseases in three bands and puts avian mycoplasmosis at 36 of 36, the lowest position on it. That ranking is a prioritisation sitting on top of the notifiable list, not a replacement for it: section 12.1 of the same circular repeals only what is "in conflict with or inconsistent with" it, and a five-name priority list does not conflict with a thirteen-name notifiable list. Every one of the thirteen entries in DA AC No. 08, s. 2021 section 4 is still owed a report.