DA bans all UK meat products

The Department of Agriculture is imposing today (Aug.6) a ban on the importation of all meat products from the United Kingdom following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in a farm in  Guilford, Surrey last Friday.

Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) director Dr. Davinio Catbagan, told The STAR that all ports of entry in the Philippines were alerted yesterday not to allow the entry of any meat imports from the UK.

The official ban, Catbagan said, would be announced today by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap who had instructed Catbagan to issue the initial alert against possible UK meat imports that may already be in transit to the country.

Catbagan, however, assured that the Philippines already has an existing ban on UK beef imports for the dreaded bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease.

However, Catbagan admitted that the Philippines imports a small amount of pork from the UK. He could not, however, say exactly how much pork products the Philippines imports from the UK and Ireland.

The Philippines, at present, is free from the contagious FMD and, in fact, is just biding time before it applies with the Organization Internacional  de Epizooties (OIE) to be declared completely FMD-free.

An FMD-free status for the Philippines would allow it to tap the lucrative pork export market. Foot-and-mouth disease comes from a virus that grows inside the stomachs and intestines of livestock.  The virus travels into the bloodstream and causes painful blisters in the mouth and hooves of affected animals..

Cows produce less milk when affected with the disease, and other animals become very weak. The Philippines, in the past, has experienced FMD outbreaks but is currently FMD-free.

However, a hog cholera outbreak is affecting some backyard farms in Bulacan and Pampanga which the BAI has just contained.

The FMD outbreak in the UK was reported only last Friday and the British Government has been quick to respond this time around to contain and quarantine the affected farm in Guilford, Surrey.

The UK had previously experienced a disastrous 2001 outbreak that nearly ruined its farm industry.