Lorenzo orders review of poultry byproducts imports

Agriculture Secretary Luis P. Lorenzo Jr. has ordered the Bureau of Animal Industry to review the importation of poultry byproducts as part of an ongoing effort to prevent the entry of the avian flu into the country.

Lorenzo’s instruction came shortly after the government recently received a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) advisory urging countries still spared from bird flu to ban imports of poultry by-products for use as raw material in the manufacture of feeds because these ingredients pose high risk to the multi-billion chicken and livestock industry.

"We’re taking the FAO advisory seriously so we are now looking at ways on how to control use of poultry by-products in feeds to protect our livestock sector‚" Lorenzo said.

Poultry by-products include chicken manure, feathers and waste feeds which are mixed with corn, soybean meal and other ingredients to produce cheaper animal feeds.

In some countries, poultry manure is mixed with corn and other ingredients and are fed to ruminants like goat, rabbit and cattle as a source of non-protein nitrogen.

This practice has been banned in Europe and Canada while the United States is about to ban the practice, the FAO advisory said.

"Given that poultry manure containing droppings, feathers and waste feed are a potentially high risk material, the feeding of poultry manure should be banned, even if correctly composted, ensiled or dried with heat treatment," FAO said.

The world food body pointed out that even when not used as feed, poultry manure should be subject to careful control. If not used as organic fertilizer, it said the material should be burned or steamed at temperature of 70 degrees Celsius, or buried deep enough to prevent access by vermin, wild birds and scavenging animals.

The FAO advisory stated that to minimize or eliminate risks, the feeding of poultry by-products should be discontinued in countries affected by the avian influenza, including meat and bone meal containing avian material and the feeding of feather meal.

"In unaffected countries, the importation of poultry meals and feather meals should be discontinued and a temporary ban on feeding poultry by-products should be considered," the advisory said.