The Department of Agriculture (DA) imposed a temporary ban on the importation of poultry and poultry products, including eggs and day-old chicks from Japan due to an outbreak of avian influenza.
Through a memorandum order signed Wednesday by DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr., the DA also immediately suspended the issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance for inbound shipments of wild birds, poultry, and poultry products from Japan.
Only wild birds, poultry and poultry products imported from Japan that are already in transit, loaded and accepted on or before Nov. 10, 2023, will be allowed entry to the Philippines, the order said.
Shipments after Nov. 10 will either be returned to Japan, or confiscated and destroyed.
The DA imposed the import ban after Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries reported an outbreak of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) on Nov. 28, 2023.
The Japanese agency’s report confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 strain on wild and domesticated birds on Nov. 24 in Kashima City in Saga Prefecture.
Tiu Laurel said the import ban was necessary to protect the local poultry population from exposure to the H5N1 avian influenza strain.
This the third in a series of poultry ban following the ban on Belgian and American poultry from the states of Ohio and California, USA.