DA enforces temporary ban on poultry products from Taipei

The Department of Agriculture has ordered a temporary ban on the importation of domesticated and wild birds and their products from Chiayi County, Chinese Taipei following the spread of an avian disease.

 

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said other banned products included poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen from the specified region where the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza is spreading.

 

“We have been taking all the necessary measures to protect our borders against avian diseases, which could impend over our country's growing poultry industry,” Alcala said.

 

The Cabinet official enforced specific emergency measures such as the immediate suspension in processing the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Import Clearance required to ship the products.

 

He ordered all ongoing shipments of poultry products from Taipei, except those that went through heat treatment, be stopped and confiscated.

 

The Taipei's Agriculture Technology Research Institute earlier informed the Office of International des Epizooties (OIE) of the outbreak of the HPAI H5N8 virus in the area.

 

According to the Paris-based OIE Animal Health Information Department, the virus is ranked among the most listed terrestrial animal diseases in 2014. – Andrei Medina/VS, GMA News