EU suspends poultry imports from Ukraine
Imports of poultry meat, meat products and non-heat-treated poultry products from Ukraine have been suspended by the EU authorities. However, eggs and egg products are not subject to these restrictions, announced the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
Officials from the agency are considering the measure to be "extremely unexpected", taking into consideration the reports of numerous equivalence assessment missions, the results of negotiations and preliminary agreements. "Ukrainian measures for the control and eradication of bird flu have been recognized as equivalent to those implemented by EU member states", the agency said in a press release. Ukraine is one of the major exporters of poultry in the EU market.
This is the first outbreak of avian flu registered in Ukraine in nearly three years. On the other hand, several cases of bird flu have been reported in commercial and backyard farms in 5 EU member states (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) and the virus has also been found in wild birds in Germany.
Coordination Rurale, a French farm union, warned about the risk of a general epidemic in the EU and recalls the 2017 events when millions of birds were culled in Europe due to multiple outbreaks on the continent. The union also warned authorities to urgently stop shipments from the infected countries and alert customs agents to the risk.
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