The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform has cancelled and recalled all imports and in-transit permits for live poultry, birds and poultry products from the United States of America (USA) due to an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).

The ministry announced the decision on Tuesday, stating that it is immediately suspending imports and in transit movements of live poultry, birds, raw poultry products, live ostriches and raw ostrich products from the USA.

“Cooked poultry meat products for commercial purposes from the USA may still be imported under the issued veterinary import permits,” it stated.

Since HPAI has an incubation period of 21 days, the suspension is also effective 21 days prior to the date of start of the event.

“In this case the event was detected on 07 February this year, therefore, the suspension was effected on 15 January 2022 by the Namibian veterinary services,” it said.

Consignments containing suspended poultry and their products, whether already packaged or not after the start of the suspension, will be rejected and sent back to the country of origin.

Importers may also destroy their imported consignments at their own costs.

The ministry further explained that cargo containers or carton boxes are classified as consignments under the poultry ban.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency