Alerts

This alert is effective from the 3rd May and these conditions will apply to any goods produced on or after the 8th April.

Australia has been notified of a confirmed outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in Italy.

HPAI is not present in Australia and the introduction of this disease would have serious economic consequences for Australia’s avian industry.  HPAI virus can infect many species of domestic and wild birds.

As a result of the outbreak, a number of commodities derived from HPAI susceptible species from Italy will no longer meet current import requirements and therefore will be considered to pose a quarantine risk.

The Department of Agriculture is undertaking measures to reduce the risk of introducing HPAI into Australia. For commodities of concern, the application of these measures will be based on the first known date of suspicion of the occurrence of HPAI in Italy. These changes will affect all products containing material derived from avians of Italian origin which were processed or manufactured on or after 8 April 2016, with the exception of products for which there are existing conditions to manage the HPAI risk. High risk items will not be permitted entry and variation of import permits will be made. For other risk items, a case by case assessment and subsequent import permit variation may be required where there are existing conditions to manage the HPAI quarantine risk from Italy.

These measures are consistent with management measures for avian derived products manufactured in HPAI affected countries.