THE Philippines has imposed a temporary ban on the entry of chicken products, as well as domestic and wild birds and other poultry products from Saskatchewan, Canada, following reports of an avian influenza (AI) outbreak there.

The temporary ban is indicated in a memorandum recently issued by Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel M. Paras.

The ban was imposed after the Office International des Epizooties   confirmed the outbreak of a highly pathogenic AI (HPAI) virus serotype H7N3 in Saskatchewan province.

“There is a need to prevent the entry of HPAI virus to protect the health of the local poultry population, as well as human health,” said Paras.

With the ban in place, the DA has suspended the issuance of import permits called veterinary quarantine clearances covering poultry products from Saskatchewan.

The DA said its officers and inspectors will stop and confiscate all shipments of poultry and poultry products originating from the Canadian province.

Canada is known as one of the major sources of chicken imports for the Philippines, but the DA did not indicate the volume of chicken sourced from Saskatchewan province.

The Philippines immediately imposes a ban on chicken imports on countries or areas where an outbreak is reported as a precautionary measure. The government had earlier imposed a similar ban on live bird and poultry imports from various countries affected by the AI, including South Korea and the United Kingdom.

Currently, the Philippines, together with Brunei and Singapore, remains free from the dreaded  AI virus, which has crippled livestock industries in a number of countries in Asia.

The World Health Organization has reported that 191 out of 317 people infected have died since the virus resurfaced in Southeast Asia in 2003.

Nongovernment organizations and industry stakeholders, for their part, have earlier called on the government to be more vigilant against smuggling to ensure that infected poultry products would not enter the country and cause damage not only to business but to humans as well.

ALIGNED with its thrust of expanding its business and operations outside of Thailand, PTT Philippines Corp. (PTTPC) has offered to the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) to come up with a feasibility study on developing a gas pipeline from Batangas to Manila (BatMan-1) and Bataan to Manila (BatMan-2).

THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) has already exceeded its full-year goal of generating P100 billion in fresh investments in 2007 as it approved P109 billion worth of new projects after the first three quarters of the year.

THE National Development Co. (NDC) will float P4.6 billion worth of bonds on behalf of the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) to partly finance the construction of the North Extension Project worth P6.27 billion.

THE Philippines has imposed a temporary ban on the entry of chicken products, as well as domestic and wild birds and other poultry products from Saskatchewan, Canada, following reports of an avian influenza (AI) outbreak there.

IF you can’t lick them, crack them.

Honda Philippines Inc. (HPI), in coordination with its principal Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (HMC), destroyed on Wednesday 22 fake Honda general-purpose engines at the De La Salle University, Bacolod premises, in place of a motion to withdraw seized articles for destruction it filed before the Regional Trial Court of Bacolod City in June.

DAVAO CITY—Local chief executives in Mindanao will meet their counterparts in the four-nation East Asean Growth Area (Eaga)  to formalize their role in the subregional grouping and to ask their chief ministers or presidents to allow them to forge direct-trade arrangements.

THE world will celebrate World Standards Day on October 14, but the country observed it much earlier as the 33rd National Standards Week was celebrated from October 8  to 14.