DA lifts ban on birds, poultry products from Germany

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has lifted the temporary ban on all imports of domestic and wild birds along with poultry and its products from Germany following official confirmation showing the absence of the avian influenza (AI) virus in Germany in the last three months.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap lifted the ban earlier this month after an evaluation done by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed that the risk of contamination from importing poultry and poultry products from Germany is negligible.

Based on the final report submitted by the Directorate of Animal Health and Food Hygiene of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture of Germany to the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), or Animal Health Organization, 90 days have elapsed without any evidence of the highly pathogenic AI since the cleaning and disinfection of infected premises conducted Dec. 26 last year.

The Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the OIE sets a three-month period before a country can regain its bird flu-free status after conducting a stamping-out campaign to eradicate birds infected with the AI virus.

The DA had also recently lifted the ban on the entry of birds, poultry and its products from Italy after the OIE had declared it free of the AI virus.

The Philippines currently bans the importation of birds, poultry and its products from Korea, Saudi Arabia, Poland and the western African country of Benin to protect human health and the poultry industry in the Philippines which has remained free of bird flu ever since the H5N1 strain of this virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003.

The Philippines is one of only three AI-free countries in Southeast Asia.

The two others are Brunei and Singapore.

As of mid-May this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 241 out of 382 people found in laboratory-confirmed cases to have been infected with the AI virus have died since the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus resurfaced in Southeast Asia in 2003 and then spread across the rest of the continent, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In the nearby Asian country of Indonesia, out of the 133 cases confirmed to date, 108 have been fatal, according to WHO data.

Yap had ordered the BAI last year to step up its implementation of border patrols, quarantine measures and other preventive steps to keep the Philippines AI-free amid the resurgence of the bird flu virus in Asia.

He had directed BAI Director Davinio Catbagan to intensify the implementation of these preventive measures in airports and seaports in the cities of Davao and General Santos owing to their proximity to Indonesia, one of Asia’s bird-flu infected countries

The BAI had improved its control measures to monitor the movement of ducks, which can be carriers of the bird flu, through grazing and by ordering suppliers and growers to secure permits for their transfer/movement.

The BAI has also been carrying out strict monitoring and control measures to prevent domestic poultry and ducks to come in contact with migratory birds from the 20 critical areas identified under the Avian Influenza Prevention Program (AIPP). The BAI has been constantly upgrading and installing new laboratory equipment, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines that are used to accurately and swiftly detect the presence of the AI virus.