January 23, 2004

Japan Bans Thai Chicken Due To Bird Flu Fears

Japan temporarily suspended chicken meat imports from Thailand on Thursday over fears of avian flu, an Agriculture Ministry official said.

Bird flu has killed at least five people in Vietnam, and an outbreak of the disease was reported recently at a poultry farm in western Japan.

The ministry official said the ban took effect immediately but didn't say how long it would last. Japan so far has suspended chicken meat imports from Macau, Hong Kong, Italy, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and two U.S. states.

Farmers in Thailand have alleged for several days that the country's chicken farms were suffering a huge outbreak of avian flu, but the government has insisted the chickens were suffering from bird cholera and other respiratory diseases, not bird flu.

Thailand is among the world's top five chicken exporters, and last year shipped 540,000 metric tons of chicken valued at 50 billion baht ($1=THB38.97), according to the Thai Broilers Processing Exporters Association.

It had targeted exports of 630,000 metric tons worth THB70 billion this year.