No ban on US beef, dairy despite bird flu

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will not ban the importation of cattle products such as beef and milk from the United States as regulators maintain that these products are safe to consume amid bird flu cases in the US dairy herd.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Constante Palabrica said the transmission of avian influenza (AI) from infected birds to dairy cattle in the US should not be a cause of concern for consumers.

Palabrica emphasized that milk products undergo pasteurization that kills the bird flu virus, rendering it ineffective of infecting humans.

“It is not a big issue. If you pasteurize the milk, the AI virus will be ineffective. People will not be infected,” Palabrica, who also heads the Bureau of Animal Industry, told reporters yesterday.

“At this point in time we are not going to ban it,” Palabrica added, referring to cattle products from the US.

In March, the US confirmed its first-ever confirmed outbreak of bird flu in its dairy herd.

Since then, about nine US states have confirmed bird flu cases in 36 dairy herds, based on monitoring by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The US states that have confirmed bird flu cases in some of their dairy herds are Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, South Dakota, North Carolina and Ohio.

The US Food and Drug Administration earlier assured the public that milk products sold in the market were safe to consume.