Head of Gosfetfitosluzhba Vladimir Gorzheev said:“The ban on poultry imports was introduced in Ukraine because of the message received from the International Office of Epizootics (IOE). The report said bird flu had been discovered in the administrative territories of the Republic of China. It also confirmed that the disease is the highly pathogenic avian influenza strain H5N1.
“Taking into account this information, we decided to ban the import of poultry from the Chinese provinces of Liaoning, Gansu, Tibet Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia of Hui region, as well as from the island of Taiwan from 13 July.”
Gosfetfitosluzhba also noted that strict veterinary control will be applied to all animal products imported from China.
“Imports from China of other goods controlled by Gosfetfitosluzhba will be carried out in accordance with all veterinary requirements in terms of the import to Ukraine of objects of state veterinary control and supervision,” it said.
The first symptoms of the recent outbreak in China appeared in the north-western Autonomous Region Xinjiang Uygur on 20 June, and the virus spread to more than 5,000 head of chickens. Since then, it has killed over 1,600 birds, according to the data from the Ministry of Agriculture of China.
Authorities have confirmed that the outbreak was caused by H5N1 virus or bird flu and imposed a quarantine. More than 156,000 chickens have been culled to control the disease.
The State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service of Ukraine (Gosvetfitosluzhba) said it made the decision after receiving notification of large outbreaks of the disease in China in late June.
