Singapore has suspended the import of uncooked poultry and poultry merchandise from a number of areas in international locations affected by an outbreak of the extremely pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza.
These locations embody 4 Japanese prefectures – Saga, Ibaraki, Saitama and Kagoshima – in addition to a number of areas within the United States, Canada, France, Belgium and Germany.
In circulars to meat and egg merchants dated December 8, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) stated the non permanent restriction was imposed in gentle of the extremely pathogenic avian influenza, generally referred to as chicken flu.
“Heat-treated poultry products which comply with the World Organisation for Animal Health guidelines for inactivation of AI virus will not be subjected to the restriction,” said the round for Japanese imports.
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Heat-treated poultry refers to merchandise which have been handled in response to pointers by the World Organisation for Animal Health.
Bird flu, which has led to the culling of tons of of tens of millions of birds previously years, normally strikes in Europe throughout autumn and winter.
It was additionally lately detected on farms in Cambodia, Japan and South Korea. Japanese media NHK reported in November that the native authorities in Saga prefecture will cull about 40,000 birds on an affected farm.
According to SFA’s knowledge in 2022, Singapore accredited 30 international locations as sources of poultry which incorporates rooster, duck, turkey, goose and quail.
Brazil, Malaysia and the United States are Singapore’s high sources of rooster.
SFA stated in a media assertion earlier this yr that as a part of the accreditation, it assesses the international locations to make sure that they’ve measures in place to ensure that the exported poultry, poultry merchandise and eggs are freed from excessive pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI).
“In addition, SFA monitors the outbreaks of HPAI worldwide and takes measures to suspend sources that have outbreaks of HPAI,” the company added in a February assertion on the worldwide chicken flu outbreak.
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“We suspend import from regions affected by HPAI or only allow products that have been heat treated to inactivate the HPAI virus.”
SFA stated Singapore poultry farms and slaughterhouses should even have biosecurity measures resembling stopping wild birds from coming into contact with their poultry flocks.
“SFA inspects local poultry farms and slaughterhouses, as well as test imported live poultry and poultry in local farms for avian influenza,” the company said on its web site.
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World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has stated that the chance of transmission to people is low. But as a precaution, persons are suggested to not contact lifeless or sick wild animals.
To minimise the chance of contracting chicken flu, SFA stated shoppers ought to cook dinner poultry totally. They ought to wash their arms with cleaning soap after dealing with uncooked poultry merchandise.
The company added that folks also needs to keep away from contact with wild birds and dwell poultry when abroad.
