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THE
Department of Agriculture (DA) has lifted the temporary
ban on all imports of domestic and wild birds, along
with poultry and its products from the Canadian province
of Saskatchewan, following official confirmation showing
that the avian influenza (AI) virus in the prairie area
no longer exists in the last three months.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap lifted the ban after an
evaluation by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed
that “the risk from contamination from importing poultry
products from
Saskatchewan,
Canada, is negligible.”
Saskatchewan
is in western Canada and near the US states of Montana
and North Dakota.
Based on
the final report by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
to the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), or
Animal Health Organization, Yap noted in a memorandum
order that, “90 days have elapsed without any evidence
of the highly pathogenic AI since the cleaning and
disinfection of infected premises” conducted in the
province.
The
Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the OIE sets a
three-month period before a country can regain its bird
flu-free status after conducting a stamping-out campaign
to eradicate birds infected with the AI virus.
Earlier,
the DA also lifted the ban on the entry of birds,
poultry and its products from the European countries of
Germany and Italy after the OIE had declared them free
of the AI virus.
The
Philippines currently imposes a ban on imports of birds,
poultry and its products from, among others, Korea,
Saudi Arabia, Poland and the western African country of
Benin to protect human health and the poultry industry
in the Philippines.
The
Philippines, together with Brunei and Singapore, has
remained free of bird flu ever since the H5N1 strain of
this virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003.
As of
mid-May this year, the World Health Organization
reported that 241 out of 382 people found in
laboratory-confirmed cases to have been infected with
the AI virus have died since the H5N1 strain of the bird
flu virus resurfaced in Southeast Asia in 2003 and then
spread across the rest of the continent, Europe, the
Middle East and Africa.
Last
year Yap had ordered the BAI to step up its
implementation of border patrols, quarantine measures
and other preventive steps to keep the
Philippines
AI-free amid the resurgence of the bird flu virus in
Asia.
He had
directed BAI director Davinio Catbagan to intensify the
implementation of these preventive measures in airports
and seaports in the cities of Davao and General Santos
owing to their proximity to
Indonesia,
one of Asia’s bird-flu infected countries.
The BAI
had improved its control measures to monitor the
movement of ducks, which can be carriers of the bird
flu, through grazing and by ordering suppliers and
growers to secure permits for their transfer/movement. |
