Gov’t bans pork, poultry imports from S. Korea, Taiwan

The government has banned pork imports from South Korea, as well as poultry and live birds from the same country and Taiwan, an Agriculture official said at the weekend. Davinio P. Catbagan, director of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), said in a phone interview the ban on pork, poultry products and live birds from South Korea was issued last Jan. 5, while the one on poultry and live birds from Taiwan was issued last Jan. 26. He traced the ban to reports of outbreaks of foot and mouth disease (FMD), as well as low-pathogenic avian influenza or bird flu in those economies. Last Jan. 30, South Korea reported its sixth FMD case in a cattle farm north of Seoul. It also reported last Jan. 26 that tests conducted in December last year had confirmed that about 26,000 ducks in a farm in Seosan City had been infected with the H5 strain of bird flu. Taiwan, on the other hand, reported on Jan. 21 that 7,000 chickens in a farm in Changhua County, Taiwan had died of the virus. Last year, the Philippines imported 114.36 million kilos of pork, 7.6 percent of which came from South Korea. But the Philippines does not import poultry or poultry products from either South Korea or Taiwan. BAI data showed that the local livestock sector had lost about P2.3 billion to FMD between 1995 and 2005. The country has not had any reported case of the disease since then. The Philippines has a pending application with the World Organization for Animal Health for "FMD-free without vaccination" status for Luzon — the remaining part of the country without such certification. — Kristine Jane R. Liu, BusinessWorld