July 9, 2004

Japan To Keep Ban On China, Thailand, Vietnam Poultry

Japan is planning to continue a ban on poultry imports from China, Thailand and Vietnam as new cases of bird flu were confirmed recently in those countries, the Kyodo news agency reports Thursday, citing government officials.

The government imposed the import ban on the three countries in January, as the avian flu swept through Asia between late last year and the beginning of this year, Kyodo said.

Tokyo later lifted a ban on imports of processed chicken products from China and Thailand, the two largest poultry suppliers to Japan. Following the fresh outbreak of the disease, Japan has tightened checks at airports and harbors to see whether they have been cooked using enough heat, Kyodo reports.

Before the new bird flu cases were confirmed, the government was considering lifting the ban completely on experts' view that the bird flu will be less infectious during the summer, according to Kyodo.

"The recurrence of the disease at this time suggests that there may be a widespread infection including unconfirmed cases. It has become extremely difficult to normalize the situation (regarding poultry imports)," an official of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry told Kyodo.