October 16, 2006

Philippines lifts ban of poultry imports from Denmark, Japan

The Philippines has lifted the temporary ban it slapped on the importation of domestic and wild birds, poultry meat, day-old chicks and eggs from Denmark and Japan after the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE) declared these countries bird flu-free, local media said.
           
In a memorandum, Agriculture Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban said a final report released by the OIE, Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, noted that no new outbreaks of bird flu had occurred as of September, reports the Business Mirror
           
The Department of Agriculture (DA) also noted that Denmark and Japan have complied with regulations indicated in the Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the OIE, which called for cleaning and disinfection and implementing the stamping out policy for infected poultry"including the biosecurity procedures to prevent the spread of bird flu.

Panganiban said the evaluation of the DA's Bureau of Animal Industry is that tjere os a negligible risk of contamination from poultry imported from Japan and Denmark. 
           
The DA imposed the ban in March this year following reports of an outbreak of the highly pathogenic AI (HPAI) subtype H5N1 in Albania, Cameroon, Myanmar, Serbia and Montenegro, Poland and  Switzerland; the subtype H5 was reported in Denmark.
                       
With the lifting of the ban, the issuance of veterinary quarantine clearance to import poultry products from Denmark and Japan has resumed.