USA Import ban on pork lifted, except Canada

By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 15:01:00 05/04/2009

MANILA, Philippines – The government has lifted the import ban on pork products from countries with cases of the deadly A(H1N1) virus, except in Canada, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said Monday.

“There is no outbreak of swine influenza… We can’t call this a swine flu problem that’s why today [Monday], I instructed the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) to lift the temporary suspension on the importation of meat products,” Yap told reporters at the Senate, on the sidelines of a hearing on the A(H1N1) virus.

Yap said the ban on pork products from Canada was not lifted since authorities there were checking the possible transmission of the A(H1N1) from a human to a pig.

Last week, the government banned pork imports from Canada, the United States, and Mexico amid fears over the spread of A(H1N1), a strain of swine flu which is transmissible from human-to-human.

Health officials had said that humans could not contract A(H1N1) by eating infected meat. The virus is transmitted from human-to-human through droplets emitted when coughing or sneezing.

During the hearing on Monday, Doctor Davinio Catbagan, director of the Bureau of Animal Industry, said the agency would consult with the science community and experts to determine whether or not they could impose a mandatory vaccination on pigs against swine flu.

“What we are saying now is not all farms are vaccinating but maybe we can increase the dosage of the coverage area because there was a time that the use of swine influenza vaccine in pigs has not been monitored,” Catbagan told a hearing by the joint committees of health and trade on the A(H1N1) virus.

“But I think a mandatory [vaccination] for a wider population of the 13.7 million pigs all over the country could be considered,” he said.

Renato Eleria, chairman of the National Federation of Hog Farmers, who was also at the hearing, said he was “open” to Catnagan’s proposal.