March 5, 2020

Philippines bans poultry imports from Germany

The Philippines has temporarily banned the import of poultry products from Germany following confirmation of new outbreaks of avian influenza (AI) in a farm in Baden-Württemberg state.

The decision on the temporary ban was made after Germany's Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) last month an outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) strain H5N8, BusinessMirror reported on Wednesday, March 4.

With the ban, Manila has suspended the processing, evaluation of applications, and issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC) of poultry products from Germany, including domestic and wild birds, poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen.

However, all incoming poultry shipments with SPS import clearance issued on or before Feb. 11, will be allowed provided that frozen poultry meat has a slaughter/process date of 21 days prior to the HPAI outbreaks [on or before January 15, 2020], the Department of Agriculture (DA) said, adding that all shipments will be subject to veterinary quarantine rules and regulations.

The import ban does not cover heat-treated products, the DA said.

Manila also imposes import ban on poultry products from Saudi Arabia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and China.