May 19, 2009
Philippines lift ban on beef imports from Netherlands
The Philippines lifted a temporary ban on beef and beef products from the Netherlands following confirmation by the World Organisation on Animal Health (OIE) that the EU nation has managed to contain bovine spongiform encelopathy (BSE), or the mad-cow disease.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said its decision is based on the declaration by the OIE that the classification of Amsterdam has improved to controlled risk from BSE.
Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said that the DA will allow the importation of beef from the Netherlands under certain conditions.
The DA would require that boneless and bone-in beef be sourced from cattle of all ages devoid of any nerves and other BSE-specified risk materials.
The Netherlands beef should also come from only healthy ambulatory and not downer cattle.
The Philippines also required exporters to have the age of the slaughtered cattle certified by the specific Dutch authority as well as of the slaughter date and the production date of the beef in the packaging label.
The feeding of animal protein to cattle is a possible way of transmitting the mad-cow disease.
The Philippines banned the importation of beef and beef products from the Netherlands in 2000, after the mad-cow disease spread in a number of countries in the EU.
