June 20, 2006

Japan lifts import ban on most French poultry

Japan lifted its ban on most French poultry imports Monday (Jun 19), including meat and internal organs, which had been in place since late February over bird flu, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry officials said.

With the termination of the embargo, poultry products, including foie gras, can be brought into Japan from France, a major producer of geese and duck livers, the officials said.

Japan decided to terminate the embargo as necessary procedures, including disinfection of plants where bird flu

has occurred, were completed and as the farm ministry confirmed no new cases of the disease at the plants for 90 days afterward, they said.

However, the import ban on poultry from Landes, France, will remain in place as a bird flu vaccine banned in Japan was used there, according to the officials.

In 2005, Japan imported 1,510 tonnes of duck and other poultry meat and 377 tonnes of internal organs, including foie gras, from France, according to the ministry.

Meanwhile, the World Organisation for Animal Health has also removed France from its list of bird-flu afflicted countries, nearly four months after the deadly H5N1 virus hit a commercial poultry farm in the south-east of the country, the French agriculture ministry said Monday.

The Paris-based animal health organisation considers afflicted countries free of bird flu after three consecutive months without a new outbreak.