The Agriculture department has issued a temporary ban on the pork and pork products from Laos due to the outbreak of the African Swine Fever there.
The department issued the ban even as the National Meat Inspection Service and the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries set fire to 260 kilos of imported meat from Poland and Belgium, two of the countries affected by the African Swine Fever.
Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol issued the ban on the pork products from Laos following the submission of a report informing the World Organization for Animal Health on the situation of the hog industry in Vientiane.
Director general of the Department of Livestock and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Somphanh Champengxay submitted the report upon receiving the result of the assessment conducted by the local National Animal Health Laboratory.
The NAHL confirmed that the outbreak that started in Toumlan in Saravane, Laos, affected backyard swine farms.
Piñol has suspended the processing and evaluation of the application and issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances to all swine and pork-based products.
All shipments carrying those products will be confiscated by veterinary quarantine officers in all the ports in the country.