The Philippine government has imposed a temporary ban on the importation of poultry and poultry meat products from Dubois County, Indiana, due to the confirmed outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the area.
US Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Deputy Administrator John Clifford reported on January 15 to the Office Internationale des Epizooties (OIE) the outbreak of H7N8 HPAI virus in Dubois County, Indiana, affecting commercial turkey flock.
Following the report to the OIE, the Department of Agriculture (DA) issued Memorandum Order (MO) 3 authorizing the temporary ban on the importation of domestic and wild birds, and their products including poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen from Dubois County.
“There is a need to prevent the entry of HPAI virus to protect the health of the public and the local poultry population,”
MO 3 read.
With the ban in place, poultry and poultry products from the HPAI-affected area will not be allowed to enter the country.
The processing and issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance for these commodities were also suspended.
Except for heat-treated products, the DA said shipments of poultry products will be stopped and confiscated by veterinary quarantine officers and
inspectors at all major ports.
Frozen poultry meat with a slaughter or process date of 21 days prior to the HPAI outbreak will be allowed to enter the country, subject to veterinary quarantine rules and regulations.
“Importation of meat products of poultry is subject to the conditions provided in Articles 10.4.19, 10.4.20 and 10.4.26 of the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code, 2015,” the memo added.
The US is one of the country’s main sources of imported chicken meat in the Philippines.
According to data from the DA, the Philippines imported 144,898.14 metric tons of poultry meat in January to September 2015.
The US accounted for 37.94 percent of the total imports.