January 28, 2004

Japan Bans Chicken Imports From China

Japan banned poultry imports from China on Tuesday after officials there confirmed that bird flu had surfaced in the country.

The ban cuts off Japan's third largest supplier of chicken meat and products after Thailand and Brazil. China accounted for 24% of such imports between April 2002 until March 2003, said ministry spokesman Kazuo Ito.

As a precautionary step, Tokyo also banned imports from Laos and Pakistan, which will have little effect on the industry as Japan doesn't import chicken from those two countries, Ito said.

The bans will last a minimum of 90 days.

So far, 10 governments have reported some strain of bird flu - China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The disease has jumped to humans in Thailand and Vietnam, where at least eight people have died.

Tens of millions of chickens and other poultry have been infected in recent weeks, sparking mass culls at farms across the region to contain the virus, and tight controls on poultry imports.

Earlier this month, Japan reported that some 6,000 chickens died of the disease on a poultry farm in southern Yamaguchi prefecture.

As of Tuesday, officials said 34,640 birds had either died from infection or been killed there - so far the only place in the country that has reported an outbreak.

Japan earlier slapped bans on poultry imports from several other countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam.