After more than a year, the Hong Kong government has lifted its import ban on Philippine poultry products after Manila has resolved the outbreak of avian influenza (AI) in Luzon farms, according to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
The BAI announced in a recent statement that Hong Kong’s lifting of the ban, which took effect on October 31, through an official notice sent by its government to Agriculture Assistant Secretary Enrico P. Garzon Jr.
“The ban was lifted as a result of the HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] situation in the affected areas now reported as resolved,” the BAI said.
“With this, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region remind all importers to follow the guidelines of importation,” it added.
Furthermore, the BAI said Philippine poultry shipments would still be held and tested for the presence of H5 and H7 AI upon arrival in Hong Kong prior to release.
On August 14, 2017, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced the import ban on all Philippine poultry products to protect public health in Hong Kong.
However, the CFS said Hong Kong has not imported any poultry products from the Philippines as it has not established an importation protocol with Manila.
In September BAI OIC-Director Ronnie Domingo told the BusinessMirror that Singapore has already lifted its import ban on local poultry after crafting its final follow-up report on the status of the AI outbreak to the OIE’s World Animal Health Information System portal in end-June.
The Philippines’s report contained a summary of what the government undertook to eradicate the dreaded bird-flu virus.
On June 27, Manila, through a follow-up report, has formally informed the OIE that it has totally eradicated the AI virus that struck Central Luzon in August 2017.
“There are no new outbreaks in this report,” it read. “The event is resolved. No more reports will be submitted.”
The report indicated that the AI outbreak that hit quail and layer farms in the provinces of Pampanga and Nueva Ecija was resolved on March 9.
The bird-flu outbreak was confirmed on August 7, 2017. It started as early as July 24, 2017, in two poultry farms in San Luis, Pampanga.
However, the Philippine report also indicated that the source of the Central Luzon AI outbreak is still “unknown or inconclusive” to date.
This is the first confirmed bird-flu outbreak in the history of the Philippines. Manila had been free from avian influenza before the virus hit farms in Pampanga last year.
Measures rolled out by the Philippines to eradicate the AI virus include official destruction of animal products, official disposal of carcasses, by-products and waste, stamping out, control of wildlife reservoirs, zoning and disinfection.
Procedures were also undertaken to deactivate the pathogenic agent in products, or by-products, and ante and postmortem inspections.
The Philippines recorded four bird-flu outbreaks across Pampanga and Nueva Ecija, which resulted in the deaths of 73,357 birds. The government culled a total of 407,840 susceptible birds in San Luis, Pampanga, and the municipalities of Jaen, San Isidro and Cabiao in Nueva Ecija.
Image credits: Bloomberg