UAE's Ministry of Climate Change and Environment has lifted the ban on importing hatching eggs, table eggs, chicks, and processed beef, veal, mutton, lamb, goat, and chicken meat from Egypt, in addition to opening the door for importing live cattle and sheep from the country. The decision followed meetings between the UAE's ministry and Egypt's Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and food control authorities and came on the heels of an imminent announcement from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), declaring multiple poultry farms in Egypt free of the avian influenza virus. The ministry has also lifted the import ban on domestic live birds from Hungary after receiving confirmation from the OIE that the country is now free from the virus. On the other hand, the UAE environment ministry has issued nine resolutions banning the import of birds and their by-products from areas that recorded outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in November and December 2020 as per notifications from the OIE. Eight of the resolutions ban the import of live domestic and wild birds, ornamental birds, chicks, hatching eggs, and their thermally untreated by-products from Ukraine, Croatia, a county in Sweden, the French island of Corsica, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and certain regions of Russia until they are declared disease-free. Moreover, they regulate the import of poultry meat and its thermally untreated by-products as well as table eggs from these regions through introducing a new requirement — an export health certificate previously agreed upon by the exporting country and the UAE. However, thermally treated poultry products from all countries have been cleared for import. In response to the situation in Sweden, the UAE ministry imposed restrictions that include the rejection of consignments containing poultry meat produced after Oct. 23 in Skåne County and other areas that may be affected in the future until the ministry and its Swedish counterpart agree upon a health certificate form. Furthermore, the ministry restrictions include the rejection of inbound consignments containing table eggs and poultry meat produced after Oct. 17 in Corsica and other areas of France that may be affected in the future until a health certificate form can be agreed upon. Meanwhile, the ninth resolution imposes restrictions on consignments coming from the United Kingdom. These include rejection of consignments containing table eggs and poultry meat produced post–14th October in Herefordshire County, Cheshire West, and Chester, and other areas that may be affected in the future until agreeing on a health certificate form. The ministry continues to allow entry of thermally treated poultry meat and egg by-products from all UK counties, while the import of thermally untreated poultry meat and by-products, as well as table eggs, is subject to the same provisions.
