South Korea has temporarily banned imports of all poultry products, including live birds, from the United States following an outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza at one of its chicken farms.
The ban, effective as of December 20 for three weeks, affects inbound shipments of any live birds and eggs, as well as poultry products that have not been heated over 30 minutes at a temperature of higher than 70 degrees Celsius within the past 21 days, said the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
The ban comes after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported bird flu outbreaks in Oregon and Washington state to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
"The local production of chicken rose 17.5 percent on-year in 2014, and the amount of inventory also stands at 9,000 tons," a ministry official said. "There will be no problem in the supply of chicken as we are also importing it from Brazil and Thailand."
