China has suspended imports of poultry and related products from Canada after inspectors there reported a case of bird flu, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Birds transported to China from Canada and waiting for quarantine inspection will be returned or destroyed, and those that have been inspected will have to undergo further testing for the bird flu virus, it quoted the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine as saying late on Sunday.
Canadian health officials discovered a case of bird flu in British Columbia last week, but said on Friday it was of the low-risk variety.
Separately, Japan said it may resume imports of heat-treated poultry products from Thailand this week if it confirms that all necessary conditions such as on hygiene have been met, an Agriculture Ministry official said on Monday in Tokyo.
“At the earliest Japan could resume imports of (heat-treated) poultry products from Thailand this week,” Hirofumi Kugita, director at the ministry’s International Animal Health Affairs Office, said.
He said the ministry hoped to send experts to Thailand this week to see whether all Japanese conditions had been met.
The lifting of the ban, imposed due to an outbreak of bird flu, would not include fresh poultry products.