The Agriculture department in the Philippines has lifted its ban on imports of poultry and poultry products from the Denmark, Czech Republic, and from the U.S. state of Arkansas, an official statement read.
The import ban on domestic and wild birds, along with poultry and its products like meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen, was lifted after the World Organization for Animal Health (known by its French acronym, OIE) certified the areas free from bird flu.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said the evaluation done by the Bureau of Animal Industry showed that the risk of contamination from importing poultry products from the said areas were “negligible.”
The department had imposed the import ban last May and June.
The Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the OIE sets a three-month period before a country can regain its bird flu-free status after conducting a stamping-out campaign to eradicate birds infected with the virus.
But the Agriculture department slapped a ban on poultry imports from the US state of Idaho after a bird flu strain was detected in game birds bred for hunting, the statement said.
Countries still banned from exporting poultry and poultry products to the Philippines are Haiti and United Kingdom.
