Philippines bans pork imports from Mexico and US

The Philippines has temporarily banned the import of hogs and pork products from Mexico and the US following reports of the outbreak of swine flu among humans in the two countries.

 

 

This was confirmed by Malacanang - the official residence of the President of the Philippines - which assured the public on Sunday (Apr 26) that the government is prepared to deal with any case of swine flu and that Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap had also assured President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that they have preventive measures in place.

 

 

Besides the temporary ban, Yap has ordered the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) to make easily available to farmers vaccines against swine flu.

 

He also ordered that the restriction in the use of swine flu vaccine be lifted and encourage hog farmers to regularly vaccinate their pigs against swine flu as the vaccine will be readily available.

 

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that as of April 24, there were six cases in California and two in Texas, confirmed seven cases in Mexico.

 

CDC said swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A flu viruses, adding that outbreaks of swine flu happen regularly in pigs and people do not normally get swine flu, but human infections can and do happen.

 

Human cases of swine flu usually happen in people who are around pigs but it is possible for the swine flu viruses to spread from person to person also.

 

CDC has determined the H1N1 virus in question is contagious and is spreading from human to human. At this time, however, it could not say how easily the virus spreads between people.