The US Department of Agriculture's inspection service has imposed new import restrictions on poultry from France because the French have started vaccinating ducks against bird flu. These restrictions also apply to live ducks, duck eggs and unprocessed duck products.
Because France is also part of the European Poultry Trade Region (EPTR, excluding Great Britain), the new import rules also apply to duck products from those countries, as well as Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The Netherlands is currently conducting field trials on vaccinating chicks to develop a vaccine for chicks and chickens, but has not yet decided on vaccinating all poultry.
The United States itself is also struggling with bird flu and already applies restrictions to all countries where bird flu occurs. Until relatively recently – with the exception of China, Indonesia, Egypt, Vietnam and Hong Kong – most countries have forgone vaccination in favor of the international recommendation to combat HPAI infections by culling infected flocks.
Since then, a number of countries - including France - have announced their intention to switch to poultry vaccination. This could have a major impact on international trade because countries that do not vaccinate are unwilling to import poultry from countries that do. There are literally billions of dollars at stake.
Although the United States is already conducting trials with poultry vaccinations, those vaccines are not currently approved for use in American poultry. As France is about to roll out its poultry vaccination campaign, the USDA tightened the rules yesterday. The USDA inspection is in consultation with the European Commission about further restrictions.