THE Bureau of Customs is strictly monitoring the entry of all imported poultry products from four countries after the Department of Agriculture ordered the ban of importation due to the outbreak of the Avian Influenza in Asia and Europe.
The BoC said it received a directive from the DA to effect the ban of all poultry products—including dressed and deboned chicken, eggs and ducks—from South Korea, Germany, France and The Netherlands.
In a statement, the BoC said it would immediately destroy seized illegally imported food products to secure the safety of the Filipinos.
DA Secretary Manuel Piñol said the department put up in place some emergency measures such as the “immediate suspension of the processing, evaluation of application and issuance of Sanitary and Phytosanitary [SPS] Import Clearance to import the aforementioned commodities from said location; and stoppage and confiscation of all shipments of aforementioned commodities from said locations, except heat-treated products.”
The secretary also stressed the importation of poultry and meat products was subject to the conditions provided in the applicable articles of the OIE’s 2014 Terrestrial Animal Health Code.
The BOC assured the public not to worry as the bureau was consistently guarding major ports against possible entry of infected products.
The DA report said the recent H5N8 strain of the disease was highly contagious among birds, and had spread in some European countries since late 2016.
Despite the total ban against the four countries, Piñol said the Philippines would continue to accept poultry products from the US, Canada and Australia.
“These three countries are exempted from the ban, mainly because they never had reported cases of Avian Flu or poultry diseases and also because they have always implemented stringent quarantine measures,” he said.
“In spite of this, strict quarantine measures will be implemented even for products coming from the three exempted countries,” Pinol added.