DA set to lift ban on Canadian poultry products

The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) has recommended the lifting of the ban on the importation of poultry products from Canada.

Agriculture Undersecretary for livestock and fisheries Cesar Drilon said an administrative order will be issued soon by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap allowing Canada to resume its exports of chicken meat and other poultry products to the Philippines.

Canada has been declared bird-flu free by the Paris-based Office International des Epizooties.(OIE). Canada is one of several countries afflicted with the deadly bird-flu virus that ravaged billion-dollar poultry farms across Asia earlier this year.

The ban on chicken meat and other poultry products from Canada, particularly in British Columbia where the bird flu was detected, took effect last Feb. 24 this year. Before the ban was imposed, the Philippines’ imports of chicken and turkey meat reached 5,966,601 kilos.

The memorandum also applies to Japan, another country plagued with the bird flu virus earlier this year.

"Based on the final report submitted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Japan Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MAFF) to the OIE, both countries completely eradicated the H5N1 subtype of avian influenza," said Yap.

Japan and the US said the affected flocks were immediately depopulated and all index premises were completely cleaned and disinfected, while movement control was strictly carried out within the areas around the index premises. No further evidence had been detected.

The DA also lifted the ban on the importation of poultry products from Taiwan on the basis of a report it already eradicated the bird flu plague.

A temporary ban, however, is being imposed on Malaysia, the latest of Southeast Asian countries contaminated with the avian influenza.