April 12, 2006

 

Japan may not lift ban on Philippine poultry imports

 

 

Japan may not lift an import ban on Philippine poultry, as the Philippine Department of Agriculture has failed to prove that the country is free from the deadly H5N1 bird flu, a senior Philippine official said Tuesday (Apr 12).

 

"Until we prove in technical terms that we have no bird flu in the country, Japan will continue to bar our poultry exports," Joseph Sison, the Philippine agricultural attache to Japan said.

 

According to Sison, the department's Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) has taken considerable time to answer Japan's queries on an incidence of low-pathogenic bird flu in the country in Jun 2005.

 

The delay in BAI's response to Japan's queries has fuelled doubts among Japanese authorities as to whether the country is indeed free of the high-pathogenic bird flu .

 

"The impression is that we've been slow in answering questions because we could be hiding something," Sison said.

 

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry will send a technical team to validate BAI's answers, Sison said.

 

In Jun 2005, the Philippines voluntarily stopped all of its poultry exports to Japan after 16 ducks on a farm outside of Manila were found to be infected with bird flu.

 

However, the virus was the less pathogenic H5N3 bid flu strain and not the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain.

 

In 2004, Japan imported 1.5 million kilogrammes of chicken parts from the Philippines. In the first five months of last year, the Philippines exported 1.5 million kg of chicken parts to Japan.