December 7, 2015
Japan latest country to ban French poultry imports
Japan has joined at least seven other countries that have suspended poultry imports from France due to a reported outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5NI avian influenza in the country''s southwestern part in Dordogne.
Japan announced on Friday, Dec. 4, it was banning imports of French foie gras, aside from poultry and live birds, after the European Commission confirmed the outbreak, which occurred on Nov. 14 at a non-commercial farm. The H5N1bird flu affected 32 broiler chickens and layer hens-22 birds died and 10 others were preventively destroyed.
Algeria, China, Egypt, Thailand, Morocco, South Korea and Tunisia have also temporarily banned poultry and live birds from France.
Japan is the largest market for foie gras, and France produces 75% of all the foie gras in the world, exporting 4,934 tonnes of it last year, according to an Agence France Presse (AFP) report.
The ban would be lifted after 90 days from Nov. 26, when all affected French poultry farms shall have finished culling their birds and ended all sanitary procedures, the AFP report said, based on a French agriculture ministry official''s statement.
The H5N1 bird-flu outbreak in the Dordogne was the first recorded in France since 2007 when wild swans were discovered dead in Moselle and tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza.