November 19, 2014
South Korea halts exports of poultry products from Britain, Netherlands
South Korea announced Tuesday it had imposed a ban on poultry imports from Britain and the Netherlands, which have reported outbreaks of H5N8 bird flu, the same strain that has apparently been affecting the East Asian country, where millions of farm birds have already been slaughtered to contain the outbreak.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said the ban, which took effect Monday, covered all poultry products including pet birds and farm animals from the two European countries.
Earlier on November 7, South Koreabanned imports of poultry products from Germany, three days after it reported a bird flu outbreak at a turkey farm.
The ministry said the import ban was part of quarantine measures aimed at preventing the spread of avian flu in South Korea, and that it had nothing to do with the safety of poultry products in the country.
It also asked potential visitors coming from Europe to refrain from making any contact with farm animals there and bringing any poultry from the affected countries.
On Tuesday the WHO said the outbreaks in the three European countries appeared to be similar to a virus that has been infecting birds in China, Japan and South Korea since the start of the year and that it most likely moved from Asia to Europe with migratory wild birds.