The Department of Agriculture (DA) has temporarily banned the importation of live swine, bovines, and water buffaloes (family Suidae, Bovidae, and Cervidae), along with related products like semen, skeletal muscle meat, casings, tallow, hooves, and horns from Hungary and South Korea due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
FMD is a severe, highly contagious disease that affects livestock, causing significant economic losses. Animals vulnerable to the virus include cattle, swine, goats, and other cloven-hoofed ruminants.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. signed separate memorandum orders for the ban following reports of FMD cases in domestic buffaloes in Hungary on March 7 and in domestic cattle in South Korea on March 18. Veterinary authorities in both countries confirmed these cases and reported them to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).
“We are imposing the ban to prevent the entry of the FMD virus and protect the health of the FMD-susceptible animal population,” Secretary Tiu Laurel said in a news release.
Exemptions from the ban include ultra-high temperature milk and derivatives, heat-treated meat products in hermetically sealed containers, protein meal, gelatin, in vivo-derived bovine embryos, and limed hides, pickled pelts, and semi-processed leather.
Products from animals slaughtered or produced on or before February 17 for Hungary, and February 27 for South Korea, and which have been tested negative for FMD upon arrival, will also be allowed entry.
