DA bans poultry imports from Texas

The Department of Agriculture (DA) banned yesterday the importation of all birds and poultry products, including fighting cocks, from the state of Texas after the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed the presence of a weaker strain of the deadly bird flu virus that is still ravaging poultry flocks across Asia.

The latest ban also includes British Columbia in Canada where the bird flu virus, or avian influenza, was discovered last week.

The Philippines imports thousands of fighting cocks from Texas annually, but it does not import broilers.

A highly contagious strain of bird flu was found in a chicken farm in Gonzales Country in South Texas, about 80 kilometers east of San Antonio, Texas.

Although earlier classified as a low-pathogenic version of the bird flu, this was reclassified as high-pathogenic after genetic testing. It is the first time since 1983-1984 that high-pathogenic avian flu was found in the US.

The DA also recently banned the shipment of all fowl and poultry products from the US states of Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey through the recommendation of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI). The DA is set to issue shortly a memorandum order that calls for the temporary ban of all imports of domestic and wild birds and their products, including day-old chicks, eggs and semen from the affected states.

The memo order will also suspend the processing, evaluation and issuance of veterinary quarantine clearance and international veterinary certificate import permit for applications required for the importation of these commodities.

Should shipments from Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and British Columbia come in, the DA quarantine inspectors and officers at all major sea and airports are authorized to stop and confiscate these commodities.

With the outbreak of the bird flu, the Philippines has so far prohibited the imports of all kinds of poultry meat and fowl from countries confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to have been affected by bird flu.

These are Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Pakistan, China, Cambodia and Taiwan.

The USDA earlier ordered the culling of thousands at Delaware poultry farms after these tested positive for a strain of the H7 virus, a lesser strain that is fatal to poultry but is not transferable to humans.

The Philippines has already banned the imports of all chicken and chicken meat products since last year, including live birds from Pennsylvania, after the state confirmed that several poultry farms were contaminated with Newcastle disease.

The USDA described Newcastle disease as a contagious and fatal viral disease affecting all species of birds.

It is probably one of the most infectious diseases of poultry. It is so virulent that many birds die without showing any clinical signs.

A death rate of almost 100 percent can occur in unvaccinated poultry flocks. An infected bird may exhibit following signs: sneezing, gasping for air, nasal discharge, coughing, watery diarrhea, nervous depression, muscular tremors, drooping wings, twisting of head and neck, circling, complete paralysis, drop in egg production, production of thin-shelled eggs, swelling of tissues around eyes and neck, sudden death.

It is transmitted through discharge or droppings, and secretions from the nose, mouth and eyes. The virus-bearing material can be picked up on shoes and clothing and is carried from an infected flock to a healthy one.