Forty countries have now banned Saskatchewan poultry products after an outbreak of avian influenza late last month.
Twelve of those countries are not accepting poultry products from anywhere in Canada.
Daniel Burgoyne of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s international affairs directorate, said some of the bans are causing no economic hardship. For example, Mexico and Peru have banned Canadian imports but neither country has taken Canadian poultry products for years.
Burgoyne said he expects the list will grow no longer.
“We’re pretty much at the limit of the important ones,” he said Oct. 15.
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The bans were implemented after birds in a Regina-area broiler breeder operation tested positive for H7N3 avian influenza in late September. All 50,000 birds in several barns have been destroyed and buried and the barns cleaned and disinfected.
No other positive cases have been reported since testing began of other flocks in the province.
Saskatchewan has exported to many countries in the past but in 2006 sent poultry products to only South Africa, Georgia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Countries that have banned Saskatchewan imports are Chile, Croatia, the 27 members of the European Union, French Polynesia, Ghana, Guatemala, Jamaica, Macau, the Philippines, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United States.
The countries banning Canadian imports are Bangladesh, Brazil,
China and Hong Kong for live birds only, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and Tunisia.
Burgoyne said the bans are in place for three months under World Organization for Animal Health standards, but can be revised. Canadian officials continue to be in contact with their counterparts in other countries.
“We are trying to, as much as possible, get them to restrict their measures to Saskatchewan,” he said.
