The Philippines has slapped a temporary import ban on poultry products from Hungary and Japan due to confirmed outbreaks of bird flu in the two countries.
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar issued Memorandum Orders (MO) 72 and 73 that ordered the temporary import ban of domestic and wild birds and their products from Japan and Hungary, respectively.
The import ban on Japanese poultry products came just two months after the Philippines’s previous ban on the East Asian country was lifted.
In both MOs, Dar noted that the two countries reported confirmed outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) or bird flu last month to the international and local authorities.
Japan reported several outbreaks of HPAI that started last November 10 to the Philippine Bureau Animal Industry (BAI), while Hungary reported H5N1 outbreaks last November 17 to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
“There is a need to prevent the entry of HPAI virus to protect the health of the local poultry population,” Dar said in the two MOs issued recently.
With the import ban, the government has suspended the processing, evaluation of the application and issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC) for poultry products from the two countries.
However, all shipments in transit/loaded/accepted unto port before the official communication of the import bans to the Hungarian and Japanese authorities shall be allowed to enter the country provided that they were produced before a given date.
Japanese poultry products produced before October 27 may enter the country while Hungarian poultry products produced before November 1 will be permitted, according to the documents.
The MO also stipulated that all other shipments accepted at the port of origin the day after the date of the official communication of the import bans to Japanese and Hungarian authorities are “advised not to sail.”
“Shipments which have not complied with the conditions set forth in Item 3 to Item 4 shall be dealt with as per DA AO 9 S. 2010 Section VII.D,” the documents read.
“Importation of meat products of poultry is subject to the conditions provided in Article 10.4.18, 10.4.19 and 10.4.24 of OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code [2021],” they added.
Last month, the government reinstated the temporary import ban on poultry products from the Netherlands, which was the second time this year, due to confirmed outbreaks of bird flu.