APHIS Updates Avian Influenza Rules

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS) has issued an interim rule updating its highly pathogenic
avian influenza (HPAI) requirements for importing birds, poultry and hatching
eggs. Because APHIS’s previous restrictions applied only to the H5N1 subtype
of avian influenza, the new rule extends its purview to include any HPAI
subtype, thus barring poultry imports from any country where these subtypes
“are considered to exist.”

Effective January 24, 2011, the interim rule also prohibits the importation of
live poultry and birds that “have been vaccinated for any H5 or H7 subtype,”
as well as their hatching eggs, since these imports “may produce false positive
test results … during the required 30-day quarantine.” In addition, APHIS
has banned live poultry, birds and hatching eggs “that have moved through
regions where any HPAI subtype exists.”

APHIS has invited comments on the interim rule before March 25, 2011. It has
also published a list of countries affected with HPAI subtypes that includes
Japan, where the government recently ordered a cull of 400,000 chickens
exposed to the H5 strain. See Meatingplace.com, January 24, 2011.