Philippines bans pork products from Japan, Korea amid FMD outbreaks

 

 

The Philippines is imposing a temporary ban on the importation of pork products originating from Japan and South Korea, which were found to have cases of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in hogs.

 

Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock and Fisheries Salvador Salacup the temporary ban was imposed after the Office Internationale des Epizooties (OIE) confirmed the outbreaks of FMD. Salacup said that the ban would stay in place until the OIE declares South Korea and Japan are already free from FMD.

 

In late April, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called for heightened surveillance against FMD after reports showed three cases of FMD outbreaks in Japan and South Korea.

 

FAO noted that the outbreaks happened despite the strict bio-security measures in Japan and South Korea.

 

"We are worried because the rigorous biosecurity measures in place in the two countries were overwhelmed, pointing to a recent, large-scale weight of infection in source areas, very probably in the Far East," FAO's chief veterinary officer Juan Lubroth said in a statement.

 

Lubroth noted that in the past nine years, incursions into officially FMD-free countries as Japan and South Korea have been "extremely rare" such that to have three such events in four months "is a serious cause for concern."

 

Meanwhile, FAO noted that the 2001 FMD outbreak caused more than US$12 billion of losses to agriculture, livestock trade and tourism in the UK alone.

 

In early April, Japan veterinary officers confirmed an outbreak of type "O" FMD virus. This is currently more common in Asian countries where FMD is endemic. South Korea encountered the rarer type "A" FMD in January and recorded the type "O" infection in April.

 

Back in 2000, the Philippines had also banned pork products from Japan and South Korea when the FMD was prevalent.

 

The Philippines bans animals and their by-products from countries where outbreaks of FMD and other animal diseases have been confirmed by the OIE. Japan and South Korea, however, are not traditional sources of pork products for the Philippines.

 

Meanwhile, the Philippine island of Luzon has yet to be certified by the OIE as FMD-free. Currently, only Visayas and Mindanao have been granted FMD-free status by the OIE.