The Department of Agriculture (DA) has reinstated the ban on the importation of poultry products from the state of Minnesota in the United States due to an ongoing outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 subtype or bird flu.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the ban was based on the report by the US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to the Philippine Department of Agriculture confirming cases of H5N1 infections in three counties of Minnesota.
Tiu Laurel said the import ban covers domestic and wild birds and their products, including poultry meat, eggs, day-old chicks and semen. The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) was also ordered to immediately suspend the processing and issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPSIC) for those agricultural products.
It was only in March this year that the DA lifted the poultry import ban on Minnesota.
The Philippines imported 166,356 metric tons of poultry products worth $175.8 million from the US, the country’s second-largest supplier, at 39 percent, of poultry meat imports.
Tiu Laurel also lifted the import ban on poultry products from the Czech Republic following the end of the avian influenza outbreak.
The import ban on poultry from the Czech Republic began in March.
According to a Czech Republic report to the World Organization for Animal Health, all bird flu infections have been resolved and no additional outbreak had been reported since 8 May this year.
The Philippines did not import meat products from the Czech Republic last year.
