Temporary ban placed on poultry from US

Jun 02, 2017 News

The Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) has advised that the importation of poultry originating from the United States of America (USA) is temporarily suspended.
This was stated in a notice that was posted on the Ministry of Business website dated April 27, 2017.
The temporary suspension is due to the prevalence of a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in some parts of the USA, which poses significant health risks to Guyana.
Highly pathogenic (HP) avian influenza (AI) (HPAI) is an extremely contagious, multi-organ systemic disease of poultry leading to high mortality, and caused by some H5 and H7 subtypes of type A influenza virus, family Orthomyxoviridae.
“The situation continues to be monitored by the GLDA who will advise further. The Ministry of Business will also continue to update Importers with regards to this issue as more information becomes available.” The notice read.
Efforts to secure a comment from GLDA top officials were futile.
Kaieteur News was told that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GLDA, Richard Cumberbatch, was in a seminar. A follow-up call was made after 16:10 hrs however; this publication was told that Cumberbatch was still in the seminar. Multiple calls later, went unanswered.
Efforts to contact the Deputy CEO Dr. Dwight Walrond, were also futile. A contact number and the purpose of the call were supplied to a GLDA official who promised to pass on the information to the Deputy.
The Director of Commerce, Nicola Namdeo – who posted the notice – is currently on leave Kaieteur News was told.
Meanwhile, questions lurk about the suspension period and what monitoring measures are in place to ensure that poultry from the USA are not imported into Guyana.
Further, enquires about whether infected poultry would have already been imported and what the necessary steps to be taken were.

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