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Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what biosecurity measures the Government have in place to protect (a) poultry farmers and (b) consumers from (i) legal and (ii) illegal (A) poultry meat and (B) egg imports from countries in South East Asia which have reported an outbreak of avian influenza. [151963] Mr. Bradshaw :[holding answer 30 January 2004]: Defra issued advice on biosecurity and on health and safety to the farming industry on 5 November 2003. In view of the avian influenza situation, we are writing to all known poultry keepers and to veterinary surgeons to highlight the problem and to reissue the advice. There is no legal trade in poultry meat or eggs from South East Asian countries affected by avian influenza other than from Thailand. Prohibitions have been placed on imports from Thailand of meat, meat products and meat preparations from species susceptible to avian influenza. HM Customs and Excise are responsible for measures to detect and prevent illegal imports into Great Britain of prohibited animal products They have put in place measures to address the possibility of illegally imported products. This included notification to all Customs staff of the new controls prohibiting imports from Thailand and ensuring controls are in place to prevent any trade imports in accordance with the EU Council Directive. The Food standards Agency advice is that eating chicken and eggs is not considered a risk to consumers. This is because the risk to people arises from close contact with live chickens that have the disease, and not through eating chicken or eggs.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

151963; 417 c619-20W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Consumers Disease control Eggs Import controls Imports Protection Poultry meat Avian influenza South East Asia

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk