The Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) has banned the importation of all poultry products, including dressed and deboned chicken, eggs, and ducks, except those coming from three countries, following the outbreak of avian influenza, or bird flu, across Europe and Asia.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said he has directed Dr. Enrico Garzon, DA assistant secretary for livestock and acting director of the Bureau of Animal Industry, to implement the ban immediately to protect the country’s poultry and duck industry.
Pending a review of the status of the poultry and duck industry in other countries, Piñol said the only countries that will be allowed to export eggs, chicken, and ducks to the Philippines are the U.S., Canada, and Australia because they do not have reported cases of avian flu or poultry diseases, and implement stringent quarantine measures.
However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on January 9 announced that a dangerous strain of the H5N2 avian influenza was recently discovered in a duck in Fergus County, Montana, but noted that no U.S. poultry were found to have fallen sick or died of the disease.
DA said that even with the ban, strict quarantine measures will be implemented even for products coming from the three exempted countries.
Covered by the ban are all poultry products from South Korea, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Piñol said he has already signed directives specifically identifying the excluded countries.
Outbreaks of the highly contagious H5N8 bird flu virus have reportedly affected France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Cases have also been reported since November 2016 in Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation.
One of the most recent is the bird flu outbreak confirmed this week in a swannery in Britain.
In South Korea, the highly pathogenic H5N6 virus has affected chickens and other birds, while there have been casualties in China amid an outbreak of the H7N9 virus in birds.
“As Secretary of Agriculture, I have to take drastic measures to protect the country’s poultry and duck industry and also the health of the Filipinos. I expect to receive complaints and requests for reconsideration from the countries affected by the ban, but I am appealing to our trading partners to understand our position,” Piñol explained.
Avian influenza, informally known as bird flu or avian flu, is an infectious disease caused by viruses that attack birds. The most well-known type of avian influenza, the H5N1, can be spread from fowl to people, but is difficult to transmit from person to person.
The DA noted that the Philippines has never had cases of bird flu mainly because it is surrounded by bodies of water and does not share borders with other countries.
“We are also one of the very few countries in the world which have been declared as totally free from ‘Foot and Mouth Disease’ affecting livestock,” Piñol noted.
The Philippines’ poultry, egg, and duck industries are the sources of livelihood of millions of Filipino farmers. Any outbreak of diseases in the sector would be devastating for them and pose a threat to the health of Filipinos, the DA secretary stressed.
Advisories will be issued as soon as other countries included in the temporary ban are assessed, validated, and cleared, he added.
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