Agricultural Trade News: Poultry, Coconut

Poultry

The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has announced that it will discontinue zone-specific announcements regarding zones in Canada that are subject to restrictions on the importation of certain avian commodities due to diagnoses of highly-pathogenic avian influenza while Canada is experiencing an active HPAI outbreak. Instead, APHIS will issue announcements for the first zone restriction that initiates a new HPAI outbreak and the final zone release that concludes an HPAI outbreak event in Canada.

The list of restricted zones can be found here, and APHIS considers any zone on this list with a “Date detected” listed and a status of “Active” or “To be determined” to be restricted. Any zone on the list with a status of “Revoked” is no longer considered restricted effective the date of the zone revocation order.

APHIS notes that imports of poultry, commercial birds, ratites, avian hatching eggs, unprocessed avian products and byproducts, and certain fresh poultry products originating from or transiting restricted zones remain prohibited.

Coconut

APHIS is accepting comments through Nov. 16 on a pest risk assessment that evaluates the risks associated with the importation of fresh coconut fruit from Belize into the U.S. Based on this analysis APHIS has determined that the application of one or more designated phytosanitary measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds via such imports.