THE government has lifted the ban on moving poultry and poultry products from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao following a series of consultations with poultry raisers, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said Tuesday.
He said he would issue an administrative order on the lifting of the ban, and that it would take effect immediately.
“The products, however, must not originate from inside the seven-kilometer radius controlled area,” Piñol said.
He said the poultry and poultry products must also have passed the inspection of quarantine officers and sealed during their transport.
“We will coordinate with the local government units and inform all agencies concerned that the ban on the movement of poultry and poultry products has already been lifted,” Piñol said.
“They should abide by that. We will coordinate with the proper agencies and everyone will be informed.”
The Agriculture Department earlier imposed a temporary ban on the movement of live domestic and wild birds and their products, including poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs, semen and manure from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao to prevent the further spread of bird flu.
The temporary ban on the shipment of chicken and other fowls from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao is contained in Memorandum Circular 09, Series of 2017, signed by Enrico P. Garzon Jr., the department’s assistant secretary for Livestock and director of the Bureau of Animal Industry.
“Since the Visayas and Mindanao remain free from avian influenza, the movement of live poultry, poultry mat, day-old chicks, eggs, semen manure and other products from Visayas and Mindanao to Luzon will be allowed,” Garzon said.
Industry stakeholders had earlier lamented the temporary ban and said poultry raisers had already lost billions of pesos.
Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura executive director Jayson Cainglet said farmgate prices had already gone down from P80 to P85 per kilo to P25 to P30 and to as low as P10 per kilo after the imposition of the ban.
“The industry already lost P1 billion. This [lifting of the ban] was what the industry had been demanding from him [Piñol],” Cainglet said.
“The killing of fowls within the 1-kilometer quarantine area is okay. Those fowls in the 7-kilometer [quarantine] should not be allowed to be shipped but there is no need to cull them.”