FRESH FARM and MOSQUITO BORNE DISEASE Reflection Paper

FRESH FARMS : FOOD RISK AND SAFETY ANALYSIS IN AGRICULTURAL FARMS TOWARD IMPROVEMENT
OF CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR FOOD SAFETY
One of the project of National Research Council of the Philippines (NCRP) that have been
discussed in the National Biotechnology Week is the FRESH FARMS : Food Risk and Safety Analysis in
Agricultural Farms Toward Improvement of Control Strategies for Food Safety. This project aims to keep
your food fresh and safe from contaminants such as parasites, microbial pathogens, and heavy metals
that are present in fresh produce and farm environments. After all, food is the basic human need and
should be available to many, It can be the main source of diseases.
The FRESH FARM Project has 3 major components: Project 1, Project 2, and Project 3. Project 1
is the Parasite Contamination and Transmission in Selected Farms in Laguna and Quezon Provinces
Towards the Improvement of Control Strategies for Food Safety lead by Dr. Vachel Gay V. Paller of UPLB.
Project 2 is the Bacterial Pathogen Contamination and Transmission Selected Farms in Laguna and
Quezon Provinces Towards the Improvement of Control Strategies for Food Safety lead by Dr.
Bernadette C. Mendoza of UPLB. Lastly, Project 3 is the Heavy Metal Contamination in Agricultural Soils
and Farm Crops and Its Implications to Farm Management and Food Safety and Security lead by Prof.
Christian C.P dela Cruz of LSPU.
Food-Borne disease are cause by food that are contaminated by biological agents such as
bacteria, virus, and parasites. Factors that affect this diseases is the changes in growing, harvesting,
distribution, processing, and consumption practices. And Farms is one of the environment that has high
risk of contamination because of the Animal to Human Interaction. It is one of the places where
pathogen spillover or zoonoses happens. Zoonoses are the diseases that are transmitted from animals to
humans. Ebola, SARS, Zika and COVID are some of the examples zonoses. This diseases is commonly
linked to human activities such as deforestation, agriculture and livestock production, illegal wildlife
trade, and climate change.
The Project 1, Parasite contamination of farm produce, found that all farms they tested are
contaminated by parasites and most of them are animal origin (zoonotic).The parasites discovered in
vegetable contamination and soil contamination are mostly animal origin while in water contamination
are both human and animal origin. Most of the possible cause of contamination is due to use manure as
fertilizer, presence of animals, human movement and behavior, sewage and domestic discharges, and
animal fecal contamination. In Project 2, bacterial pathogen contamination of farm produce, found that
there are bacteria in raw salads that we normally consume. Bacteria and Parasites found in food
produce are commonly caused by poor environment sanitation, poor access to clean water, lack of
technological know-how, lack of guidance from relevant agencies about good farming practices, and
poor facilities and hygiene. So this project recommendation is to implicate food safety to the farmers,
foster a more urgent, collaborative and action-oriented approach. In Project 3, Toxic Heavy Metals are
also found in vegetable farms. Heavy Metals are toxic to humans. Lead and Arsenic are metals that are
potential carcinogen are found in the tested farms. They found out that contaminations are mostly
detected in conversional farms and cassava has significant potential carcinogen which is very alarming.
This project state that use of natural pesticide and organic pesticide can decrease the heavy metal
contamination.
This project found out that most of the crops we consume in the farms are contaminated with
either organisms or heavy metals that can be harmful to humans. With knowledge and good practices It
hopes to eliminate this problems to ensure the safety of human organisms.
MOSQUITO-BORNE DISEASES AND THE USE OF MODERN BIOTECHNOLOGY
The topic of this Webinar is about the Mosquito-Borne Diseases and the use of Modern
Biotechnology to address this disease. In the Philippines, the mosquito-borne diseases include dengue,
Chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis, malaria, and filarasis which have been a problem and cause many
deaths since 19th century.
Dr. Kevin Gorman, Head of Field Operation for Oxitec, is one of the guest speaker of this
webinar. Oxitec is a company that specialized in mosquito and produces the Oxitec’s mosquito. Its goal
is to improve the lives and livelihoods of people by developing safe, environmentally sustainable and
highly effective solutions to control disease-transmitting and crop-destroying insects. They develop the
Oxitec’s Friendly mosquito technology which is a male mosquito that carry a self-limiting gene and a
Fluorescent Marker gene. The Oxitec’s mosquito are safe, non-toxic, non-allergenic, male-only,
traceable in the fields, and are targeted suppression. It is safe for humans, animals and the
environments, and targets only the target disease vector species.
The dengue, Chikungunya, Zika, Yellow fever, and other viruses are all transmitted by female
Aedes aegypti mosquitos that’s why the Oxitec company focuses on the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The
self-limiting gene that is inserted in the mosquitos inhibit the production of female offsprings, since only
the female mosquito bite and can transfer the disease. The Fluorescent marker gene that inserted in the
mosquito helps the researchers to track the Oxitec mosquitos after they release them to the wild which
is useful for data collections. The oxitec mosquito technology shows promising results as they’ve been
release 1 billion globally, mostly in Brazil. It show suppression of mosquitos and have good feedback by
the residents
In the Philippines, Dr. Pilarita Rivera of University of the Philippines, Manila, aims “The prospect
of Malaria Elimination in the Philippines”. Malaria is a serious and sometimes fatal disease caused by a
parasite that commonly infects a certain type of mosquito which feeds on humans. One of the cause of
transmission of malaria is the biting of mosquito. Malaria is associated in rural area or forest are as the
breeding environment there are suitable for mosquitos.
There are strategies that have been applied in the Philippines to stop the transmission of
malaria. The Early diagnosis and prompt treatment, and the use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNS). The
malaria diagnosis uses thick and thin blood smears, and also the rapid diagnostic test (RDTs). These
programs that the government applied in the Philippines have been successful as the cases and death by
malaria in the Philippines have significantly dropped since 2003. The program goal for the Philippines is
by year 2030 the country would be malaria-free. Unfortunately, in this present day the covod-19
pandemic hinders the malaria program implementation as there issues such as supply chain issues, the
shifting fund for COVID-19, re-assigning health staff for COVID-19 and the restrictions on the movement
of people. Hopefully this program will be successful by the year 2030 as I hope to live in a safe country.

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FRESH FARMS : FOOD RISK AND SAFETY ANALYSIS IN AGRICULTURAL FARMS TOWARD IMPROVEMENT

OF CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR FOOD SAFETY

MOSQUITO-BORNE DISEASES AND THE USE OF MODERN BIOTECHNOLOGY

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