DA confirms ban on Canadian beef

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has confirmed the temporary ban on all beef imports from Canada due to the alleged mad cow disease that struck a top cattle-producing region in northern Alberta.

As this developed, the DA also banned the importation of domestic and wild birds and their products, including poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen from Texas, after the US Department of Agriculture (DA) confirmed an outbreak of Newcastle disease .

Newcastle disease is a contagious and fatal viral illness for fowl but almost harmless to humans, although people working with infected live birds can get mild conjunctivitis.

The country imports about 2,000 fighting cocks yearly from the US, mostly originating from Texas.

Texas was the fourth US state infected with the Newcastle disease since the outbreak started in Southern California in October.

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. said the ban on all beef imports took effect Monday and will be lifted only after Canadian quarantine officials and other international bodies guarantee that the brain-wasting bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, has been contained.

The ban includes all beef products including live cattle, sheep and goat, their meat and meat products; bovine embryo; meat and bone meal and other feed ingredient derived from said cloven hoofed animals.

Previously, Bureau of Animal Industry officials said there is a need to ban the entry of Canadian meat products particularly cattle, sheep and goat meat since there is increasing scientific evidence that BSE can trigger the spread of an epidemic on the local cattle industry and could cause debilitating and dreadful Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease when ingested by humans.

"We have to be very careful, all imports should adhere to quarantine related standards," said Lorenzo.

Even before the Philippines imposed the ban, Japan and South Korea, the third and largest markets for Canada’s beef exports, issued similar import bans, along with the US.

Lorenzo said the administrative order he issued specifically called for the immediate suspension of the processing, evaluation and issuance of veterinary quarantine clearances and SPS import permit for applications relevant to the importation of affected animals from Canada.

At the same time, all shipments of affected products will be confiscated based on the implementation date of the import ban.

Currently, the Philippines continues to maintain its ban on beef products from Japan and several European countries when the mad cow disease plagued these regions in recent years.

Last year, the DA imposed a temporary ban on Japanese beef when mad cow disease corrupted its domestic cattle industry, while the prohibition on the entry of beef products from the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, France, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Germany was imposed since November 2000.

Since the country prohibited beef imports from Japan and Europe, it has been increasing its imports from Canada to meet local demand.

The country imported 767,222 kilos of beef in 2002, up substantially from 288, 695 kilos in 2001. Importation figures for the first quarter of 2003 showed imports reached 474,709 kilos.