South Korea was the first country to announce a ban on imports of U.S. chicken and eggs after HPAI was detected in Tennessee earlier this week. South Korea has itself been fighting an avian influenza outbreak, culling 34 million birds so for this year, and has been importing eggs from the United States as its AI outbreak has tightened the country’s egg supplies.
South Korea’s import ban took effect on Monday, the agriculture ministry said in a statement. Live poultry and eggs are subject to the ban, while heat-treated chicken meat and egg products can still be imported, the statement noted.
South Korea resumed U.S. poultry imports in June last year after imposing a ban in early 2016 when avian influenza was detected in the United States. The resumption of the U.S. import ban means South Korea can import chicken meat from Brazil, Chile, Australia, Canada, the Philippines and Thailand. Live poultry imports are limited to farm birds from New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
The import ban list limiting imports of U.S. poultry has now hit 28 countries including Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, Singapore, South Africa, Cuba, and Hong Kong. Other countries have already or are in the process of implementing bans including such countries as Canada, New Zealand, Oman, Jamaica, Uruguay, Guatemala, among others.
Japan and Taiwan will block poultry from the state, while Hong Kong will restrict imports from the Tennessee county where the infected flock was located, according to James Sumner, president of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council.
While poultry producers across Europe and Asia have also been grappling with the virus in recent months, Brazil, the world’s largest chicken exporter, has so far remained untouched.
USDA has been communicating with the World Organization for Animal Health as well as international trading partners regarding the HPAI outbreak in Tennessee and encouraging them to adhere to OIE standards and minimized trade impacts. OIE trade guidelines call on countries to base trade restrctions on sound science and, whenever possible, limit restrictions to those animals and animal products within a defined region that pose a risk of spreading the disease of concern.
