DA bans cattle imports from Egypt
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 04/07/2009 2:52 PM
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The Department of Agriculture on Tuesday temporarily banned imports of cattle and other animals susceptible to the foot-and-mouth disease from Egypt as part of the continuing government drive to keep the Philippines safe from FMD.
DA Secretary Arthur Yap said the ban includes the immediate suspension of the processing, evaluation of the application and issuance of Veterinary Quarantine Clearance (VQC) to import livestock from Egypt. He also directed DA veterinary quarantine officers and inspectors to stop and confiscate all such commodities and by products originating from this North African country.
FMD is a highly contagious viral disease that strikes cloven-hoofed animals.
Yap said the ban was in keeping with the Department's campaign to obtain a formal declaration from the Office International des Epizooties confirming the Philippines as an FMD-free country. "A global declaration of the country's FMD-free status will help Filipino hog producers penetrate the export market and make the Philippines a viable site for halal food production," Yap said.
The Office International des Epizooties (OIE) or World Animal Health Organization earlier announced two separate outbreaks of FMD in Egypt. The FMD outbreaks with serotypes A and O were reported in a dairy cattle farm and in cattle and buffaloes in Menea, Elkamh, Ahs Sharqiyah, and Damanhour, Al Buhayrah.
The Philippine agriculture department has also imposed a temporary ban on imports of cattle and other FMD-susceptible animals from Lebanon, China and Taiwan after the OIE had confirmed outbreaks of the disease in these areas.
According to Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) Director Davinio Catbagan, Luzon is the only remaining area in the country that has not yet been declared by the OIE as FMD-free.
Catbagan said the OIE already declared as FMD-free the entire Mindanao in May 2001, as well as Masbate, Palawan, and the entire Visayas in the same month the following year.
He said the DA-BAI aims to secure OIE certification for most of Luzon as FMD-free "without vaccination," and Central Luzon, the National Capital Region, and the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon (Calabarzon) area as FMD-free areas with vaccination.
Catbagan pointed out that the Philippines has not had an FMD outbreak in over three years.
The last case of FMD was reported in Lucban, Quezon on December 28, 2005.
