The Department of Agriculture (DA) imposed a temporary ban on poultry and poultry products, including eggs and day-old chicks from Japan due to an outbreak of avian influenza.
In a memorandum order signed Wednesday by DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., the agency also immediately suspended the issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance for the inward shipment of wild birds, poultry and poultry products from Japan.
The DA said only wild birds, poultry and poultry products imported from Japan that are in transit, loaded and accepted on or before Nov.r 10, 2023 will be allowed entry to the Philippines.
DA said the import ban was imposed 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 on November 28.
The Japanese agency’s report showed an outbreak of the H5N1 strain after wild and domesticated birds on November 24 in Kashima City in Saga Prefecture.
Laurel said the import ban was necessary to protect the local poultry population from exposure to the H5N1 avian influenza strain.
Based on latest data from the Bureau of Animal Industry, from January to November 2023, the country has not purchased any poultry meat from Japan.
The DA earlier also banned the importation of poultry and other poultry products, including wild birds from Belgium and France as well as from the states of California and Ohio in the United States, due to similar HPAI H5N1 issues.
