Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 10) — The Department of Agriculture has ordered a ban on the entry of poultry and its products from Gelderland, Netherlands following a reported bird flu outbreak in a village in the area.
The department issued on Tuesday Memorandum Order No. 60, Series of 2020, which temporarily bans the importation of domestic and wild birds and their products including poultry meat, day old chicks, eggs and semen from Altforst in Gelderland, Netherlands.
The DA also ordered the immediate suspension of the processing and evaluation of the application and issuance of Sanitary and Phytosanitary permits for the said commodities. Only permits issued on or before Oct. 30 will be allowed provided that frozen poultry meat has been processed 21 days prior to the outbreak.
According to data from the Bureau of Animal Industry, around 105 million kilos poultry shipments from Netherlands have been recorded as of October 2020. Total shipments in 2019 were around 97 million kilos.
The Netherlands, in an Oct. 30 report to the World Organization for Animal Health, said an outbreak of H5N8 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in the area has affected broiler parent stock. A previous outbreak of the strain was recorded in 2018, it added.
Over 30,000 birds were killed to control the spread, the report to the organization said.
