July 13, 2005

Philippines poultry to enter Japan again
 

The Philippines is expected to restore its poultry export to Japan in one week's time. It had voluntarily halted its poultry exports last week, after three ducks in the Bulacan province north of Manila were detected with the H5 bird flu strain.

The Philippines government had stopped its poultry export to protect maintain its reputation, and the self-imposed poultry export ban can be lifted anytime, according to the country's Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) Director Jose Q. Molina said.

He added that that the government is optimistic on reaching its target of exporting 10,000 metric tonnes of chicken to Japan this year, despite the detection of the H5 strain.

So far, 3,000 metric tonnes of Philippines chicken export has reached Japan in the first half of 2005. This is triple the 1,000 metric tonnes of poultry exported from the Philippines to Japan in 2004.

Samuel B. Animas, the national coordinator of the Bird Flu Task Force in the country, believes that the local strain detected in the Bulacan duck farm is not the extremely pathogenic bird flu strain, H5N1.

In the meantime, BAI is continuing to test all animals within the three-kilometre area of the farm even as chickens in the vicinity have tested negative for the H5N1 strain.