CHICAGO (Reuters) — China has banned all imports of U.S. poultry, poultry products and eggs amid recent reports of highly pathogenic strains of avian influenza found in the Pacific Northwest.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said all poultry and poultry related products shipped from the United States after Jan. 8 would be returned or destroyed.
The ban also applies to poultry breeding stock, which includes live chicks and hatching eggs.
Toby Moore, spokesperson for the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, said the U.S. exported 239.768 million pounds of poultry products to China from January to November last year, which were worth nearly US$272 million. The imports were primarily chicken feet.
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China also imported 55.923 million lb. of U.S. turkey during that period.
China’s U.S. egg imports are marginal, according to industry sources.
“This move is somewhat hypocritical as there have been zero findings of high pathogenic avian influenza in a commercial poultry flock in the U.S., and China already has a variety of avian influenza strains,” said Brett Stuart, chief executive officer of Global AgriTrends in Denver, Colorado.
China’s actions came after Hong Kong suspended imports of certain U.S. poultry and poultry products in late December after two separate virus strains were identified in Whatcom County in Washington, including H5N2 in northern pintail ducks, according to the USDA.
Discovery of the same strain has resulted in the deaths of thousands of birds on two British Columbia farms.
As well, the highly pathogenic 85N8 strain was confirmed in guinea fowl and chickens in a backyard poultry flock in Winston, Oregon.
Neither virus has been found in U.S. commercial poultry. No human cases involving either viral strain have been detected in the U.S. or Canada, and there are no immediate public health concerns, said the USDA.
