Philippines-Ban of beef from Egypt.

PHILIPPINES-BAN ON MEAT FROM EGYPT.

- The Department of Agriculture (DA) has temporarily banned imports of Egyptian cattle and other animals susceptible to the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) as part of the continuing drive to keep the country safe from this infection.

The import ban was issued after the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), or the World Animal Health Organization received an official report of two separate FMD outbreaks in Egypt .

The FMD outbreaks with serotypes A and O were reported in a dairy cattle farm and in cattle and buffaloes, respectively, in Menea, Elkamh, Ahs Sharqiyah, and Damanhour, Al Buhayrah.

The ban includes the immediate suspension of the processing, evaluation of the application and issuance of Veterinary Quarantine Clearance (VQC) to import these animals from Egypt .

DA veterinary quarantine officers and inspectors were ordered 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.

The ban was in keeping with the agency’s campaign to obtain a formal declaration from OIE confirming the Philippines as an FMD-free country, DA Secretary Arthur Yap said.

Earlier, the DA 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.

The Arroyo government seeks to certify Luzon as FMD- free to pave the way to a global declaration of 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.

Luzon is the only remaining area in the country that has not yet been declared by the OIE as FMD-free, according to Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) Director Davinio Catbagan.

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.

No FMD outbreak has been reported in the Philippines in over three years, Catbagan said.

The last case of FMD was reported in Lucban, Quezon on December 28, 2005. - GMANews.TV