Antibiotic Resistance: An Interaction Saga of Man Versus Microorganism

Are the Philippine environmental laws creating a climate conducive for ecological studies in the country?

It will be a lot a better if we understand where we are coming from. Based on the legal framework, the Philippine laws are sufficient enough to provide a climate conducive for systematic works in our country. These can be best exemplified by the following:

-       State Ownership of Natural Resources

This is stated in the Article XII, Sec. 2 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, thus: “all lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources are owned by the State. With the exception of agricultural

lands, all other natural resources shall not be alienated”. Accordingly, “the exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State. The State may directly undertake such activities, or it may enter into coproduction, joint venture, or production sharing agreements with Filipino citizens or corporations or associations at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens”.

-        PD 705 (1975) otherwise known as the “Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines”.

This is principal law governing forest management in the country. The Code contains basic forestry standards and practices such as areas needed for forestry, multiple use, forest utilization and management, and criminal offenses and penalties. PD 705 has been amended accordingly by Executive Order 277.

-       RA 7586 (1992) or the “National Integrated Protected Area System” (NIPAS)

This is the principal law governing set asides or protected areas. NIPAS encompasses outstanding remarkable areas and biologically important public lands that are habitats of rare and endangered species of plants and animals, biogeographic zones and related ecosystems, all of which are designated as protected areas. The protected areas include strict and nature reserve, natural monument, wildlife sanctuary, protected landscapes and seascapes, resource reserve and natural biotic areas.

-       PD 1152 of the Philippine Environment Code of 1977

This Code mandates the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to establish a system of national exploitation and conservation of wildlife resources and to encourage citizens’ participation in the maintenance and/or enhancement of their continuous productivity by: regulating the marketing of threatened wildlife resources, reviewing all existing rules and regulations on the exploitation of wildlife resources, and conserving the threatened species of wild fauna.

-        Republic Act (RA) 8485 or the Animal Welfare Act of 1998

This RA intends to protect and promote the welfare of all animals in the Philippines by regulating the establishment and operations of all facilities utilized for breeding, maintaining, keeping, treating, or training of all animals either as objects of trade or as household pets;

-       RA 7160 or the Local Government Code

This mandates local goverment units (LGU) to share with the national government the responsibility in the maintenance of ecological balance within their

territorial jurisdictions.

-       RA 9147 or Tthe Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act

This RA aims to protect our country’s fauna from illicit trade, abuse and destruction, through (1) conserving and protecting wildlife species and their habitats, (2) regulating the collection and trade of wildlife, (3) pursuing, with due regard to the national interest, the Philippine commitment to international conventions, protection of wildlife and their habitats, and (4) initiating or supporting scientific studies on the conservation of biological diversity.

At the international level, the Philippines is a member of ASEAN which is advocating biodiversity conservation and wildlife protection through the ASEAN Working Group on Nature Conservation and Biodiversity (AWGNCB), and the ASEAN Regional Center for Biodiversity Conservation. Further, the Philippines is a signatory to the “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora” (CITES) in 1981 which aims to regulate the international trade of wildlife species, its parts and by-products.  The Philippines also ratified its membership in two other international conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS).

In short, the Philippines has one of the most voluminous set of environmental laws in Asia. According to Antonio 1996, the Philippine government has enacted approximately 118 environment related laws in the country.  The presence of these laws, however, has not prevented the reduction in forest cover from about sixty percent (60%) fifty years ago, to the now critical state of ten percent (10%). Neither

has it prevented the destruction of our coral reefs to the now terminal state of only five percent (5%). Evidently, the legal framework of Philippine environmental law is sufficient in substance and in form, even superfluous. The level of implementation, however, suffers in the sickbed of non-compliance.

As such the field of ecological studies may be encouraging. Unfortunately with the loss of the country’s forest cover, the habitat of wild flora and fauna has likewise been lost. Habitat destruction can be attributed to logging, both legal and illegal, mining and energy projects, land use conversion, kaingin, pest and diseases, etc. While habitat destruction is considered as the reason for wildlife loss, other factors include weak institutional and legal mechanisms, domestication and hybridization, introduction of exotic species and overexploitaion for food and trade (http://www.cbd.int/doc/meetings/nbsap). Truly, it is a maze of which comes first.  Nonetheless, procrastination should be set aside. Progressive thinking should then be a priority. How ecology education can help alleviate the problem then? This can be achieved but not limited to the following:

-       Educating, providing and disseminating information materials such as what are the ban species for trading, and what are the prohibited acts to the grassroots level

-       Providing skills to locals in conservation planning and management

-       Providing  of technical expertise in the DENR, Wildlife Enforcement Officers and LGUs in the proper identification of wildlife and in paralegal.

-       Beefing up enforcement of Wildlife Law, i.e., if the officers tasked to apprehend illegal wildlife peddlers do not know how to identify a particular wildlife, then wildlife law enforcement will have little chance of success.

-       Creating  wildlife rescue centers and wildlife monitoring units duly managed by competent ecologist, biologist, systematist and veterinarians

Education will be futile if there are no political will to implement the laws vis-a-vis with government support in infrastructure such as:

-       Providing sufficient resources for wildlife protection by allocating in the General Appropriations Act for Wildlife Protection (I presumed that this is not included)

-       Establishing checkpoints and  monitoring units at airports and ports

• Providing legal and protective support against harassment for those who enforce the Wildlife Act and similar environmental laws

Climate Change and Biodiversity

TThe importance of ecology and its contributions to biodiversity and global climate change cannot be denied. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment ranks climate change among the main direct drivers affecting ecosystems. Consequences of climate change on the species component of biodiversity include: changes in distribution, increased extinction rates, changes in reproduction timings, and changes in length of growing seasons for plants.

Some species that are already threatened are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The following are examples of species and of their vulnerabilities (WWF. Climate Change. Nature at risk. Threatened species, accessed online at http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/problems/impacts/species/index.cfm.):

Aerial view of the Great

Aerial View of Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Photo courtesy of Charlton Barreto

• Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could lose up to 95% of its living coral by 2050 due to changes in ocean temperature and chemistry.





Photo courtesy of Kalovstian/UNEP/Alpha Presse




• Since frogs rely on water to breed, any reduction or change in rainfall could reduce frog reproduction. Moreover, rising temperatures are closely linked to outbreaks of a fungal disease that contributes to the decline of amphibian populations, especially frogs in Latin America

Photo courtesy of David Snelling

• Some of the largest remaining areas where tigers occur are the mangrove forests of Asia. The projected rise in sea levels could cause the disappearance of the tigers’ habitat, threatening the survival of the species.

The inter-relationships between biodiversity and climate change can be viewed as:  biodiversity is threatened by climate change, however, proper management of biodiversity can reduce the impacts of climate change. Ergo, global climate change is a threat to  biological diversity and ecology plays an important role in mitigating or adapting the impacts of global climate change.

Ecology provides important information to human interest of various fields including biodiversity conservation, agriculture, food security, health, and tourism among others. In biodiversity conservation, mankind may be able to conserve biodiversity and sustainably used it. For example, nature reserves can be established to preserve rare species. Species re-distribution, likewise, as a consequence of climate change is most likely to happen. Proper taxonomic records provide the historical distribution of species, thereby, species extinction can be predicted and necessary support ecosystem and adaptive measures can be addressed.

Taxonomic information helps with making policies and other regulatory frameworks.  As an example, the Convention for the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival (http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.shtml). Today, it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 30,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats or dried herbs. Philippines is a member country of CITES. Likewise, The CONABIO initiative in Mexico and INBio in Cost Rica offer examples of successful national models for converting basic taxonomic information into knowledge for biodiversity conservation policies, as well as for other policies relating to ecosystems and biodiversity.

Correct knowledge on availability and status of species (which of, course was achieved with tools and methods of systematic and taxonomy) is important to define and refine conservation strategies in a country.  In ASEAN Center for Biodiversity website (http://bim.aseanbiodiversity.org/biss/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=1),  species database takes off from the taxonomic tree defined by the Catalogue of Life (COL). 

Below is the Philippine level summary on the status of species threats:

.

	Endemic1	Native2	Threatened
			Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
Amphibians	80	99	1	15	32
Birds	178	451	13	11	37
Mammals	112	180	4	11	18
Reptiles	168	141	5	13	12
Butterflies	31	18	1	4	9
Molluscs	0	8	1	0	2
Freshwater Fishes	94	44	18	3	8
Marine Fishes	123	170	3	4	30
Plants	26	323	52	34	129

Source:
¹ Living National Treasures website, Living National Treasures: Philippines on 10 May 2010 at http://lntreasures.com/philippines.html

and http://bim.aseanbiodiversity.org/biss/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=7

² Total Species assessed by IUCN as of 2010 [IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species]
* for endemic, data available for vascular plants only

Knowing these pertinent facts on the species status, the Philippine government can provide certain policies on the prevention of habitat loss through declaration of sanctuary and/or protected area specifically for critically endangered species. Further, in forest ecosystem, its conservation offers important opportunities to protect biodiversity and slow climate change. In addition, afforestation and reforestation can be implemented to enhance carbon sinks and reservoirs. Adaptation options may include other activities that can increase resilience to climate change including avoidance habitat fragmentation and prevention conversion to plantations.

Time and Temperature: Impetus of Food Poisoning Prevention in In-flight Catering

Airline catering prepares in-flight meal which is served to passengers on board a commercial airline. The food, ranging from a simple beverage and chips in short haul flight economy class to a seven to nine-course gourmet meal in long-haul business and first class, requires utmost microbiological safety. Given the limitation of facilities in an aircraft, prevention of food poisoning outbreak is the main goal of any airline catering services.

I was fortunate to work as Quality Manager in Gate Gourmet Philippines, one of the branches of largest airline catering business in the world.  How did we achieve to have a zero food poisoning outbreak? We achieved it through the implementation of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) which is defined as a management system in which food safety is addressed through the analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product (www.fda.gov).  Microbiological control was achieved through a food safety plan based on HACCP focusing on time-and temperature was being implemented. The HACCP Plan had 6 critical control points for potentially hazardous foods which were based on the temperature and time requirement of commonly isolated microbiological food pathogens like Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Vibrio spp. and E. coli.  Truly, understanding the environment necessary for microbial growth helped us achieved our objective of serving safe food.

The six critical control points (CCP) based on time and temperature are as follows:

1.      CCP 1. Control of Food Temperature at Receiving (Frozen items --- rock frozen and no sign of thawing, chilled items --- maximum of 5⁰C)

CCP 1

2.      CCP 2. Control of Food Storage During Storage (Freezer --- -18⁰C, chiller --- maximum of 5⁰C, all food items should have a labeled shelf life)

CCP 2

3.      CCP 3. Control of Food Cooking (poultry, pork, ground meat, stews, sauces --- 74⁰C minimum; fish --- 71⁰C minimum)

CCP 3

4.      CCP 4. Control of Food Chilling (less than 5⁰C within 4 hours, maximum of 48 hours in storage)



CCP 4

5.      Control of Food Temperature/Time During Portioning (maximum of 8⁰C within 40 minutes)

CCP 5

6.      CCP 6. Control of Food Temperature at Dispatch (maximum of 5⁰C)



CCP 6



To safeguard the food from physical and chemical contaminants, standard operating procedures were in placed such as the following:

l  Personal Hygiene Procedures

l  Cleaning and Disinfection Procedure

l  Physical and Chemical Hazard Control Procedure

l  Food Safety Training Procedure

l  Calibration Procedure

l  Microbiological Analyses Procedure

l  Facility Requirements Complaint Procedure

In general, there is likely hood of spoilage or microbial food poisoning outbreak at any temperature between 5 to 60 ⁰C. This range is commonly known as Temperature Danger Zone (TDZ). Since microorganisms differ so widely in their minimal, optimal and maximal temperatures for growth, it is obvious that the temperature at which a food is held will have a great influence on the kind, rate and the amount of microbiologically induce change that will take place. However, food poisoning prevention should note solely rely on time and temperature control. Food poisoning prevention can be realized through a gamut of system on based on sound principles of proper personal hygiene, prevention of cross contamination and of course, time-temperature. These environmental factors are the control tools in preventing food poisoning

So, the next time you fly on a commercial airline, rest assured that the food being served is with extreme quality and safety!