DA issues guidelines for rabbit importation

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) has issued guidelines on rabbit  importation amid Filipinos’ growing acceptance of rabbit meat as an alternative protein source.

In a memorandum circular, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the DA recognizes the increasing interest of many Filipino farmers in raising rabbits for meat production due to the ease in propagation and minimal production costs.

“The growing awareness and local acceptance of rabbit meat as an alternative protein source amid the rising prices of major livestock commodities such as pork and poultry meat have ignited a subsequent increase in the sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPSIC) request for meat-type rabbit breeds,” Dar said.

In August last year, the DA issued transitory guidelines for the importation of rabbits into the country through a memorandum circular.

Dar said the new memorandum circular was issued after further evaluation was performed by government and private stakeholders to assess the implementation of the procedures of the previous guidelines.

“In order to facilitate the safe importation and introduction of superior genetics from other countries, while preventing the inadvertent introduction and spread of transboundary animal diseases of rabbits, the DA prescribes the following updated guidelines for all concerned regarding the importation of rabbits into the Philippines,” Dar said.

The guidelines list the requirements for the importation of rabbits into the country to be complied with by interested importers, as well as the terms and conditions for the rabbits to be imported.

“Any applicant who intends to import rabbits from foreign countries must apply for SPS Import Clearance through the DA Intercommerce Services (INS) website,” the guidelines state, adding that the applicant need to disclose the species, sex, age, breed and number of animals,” the guidelines state.

They must also disclose the country of origin, purpose of importation, proposed quarantine site and the expected date of arrival.

Other required documents to be submitted are the travel plan, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) certificate of accreditation as live animal importer, among others.

The BAI-National Veterinary Quarantine Services Division will review and correlate the submitted documents to the checklist.

The agency will also review latest advisories of relevant international bodies such as the World Organization for Animal Health and other DA-recognized bodies, as well as the exporting competent authority on the animal health status, presence of relevant diseases, and other SPS-related risks as part of risk assessment to verily the health status of DA accredited/authorized countries.

“Applicable importation terms and conditions shall be derived from the result of the risk analysis and shall be subject for compliance of the exporting country,”the guidelines state.

The applicant must also request a quarantine site inspection to the BAI- Veterinary quarantine services (VQS) in the region prior to the  SPSIC application

“A Certificate of Inspection for Approved Quarantine Site shall be issued to the applicant upon due inspection and evaluation of the premises and is submitted as part of SPSIC application requirements,” the guidelines state, adding that each Certificate of Inspection for Approved Quarantine Site is good for one batch of importation only and should not be used for the succeeding shipments of rabbits.

The guidelines also said that the quarantine site must have undergone 30-day downtime to allow thorough cleaning and disinfection before the next batch of importation can be used by another importer.

Moreover, an issued SPSIC will only be valid for 60 days from its issuance and indicates the period for which the actual consignment should have left the country of origin.

The memorandum circular also covers guidelines on border clearance and processing of imported rabbits as well as quarantine procedures.

The circular was signed on June 2 and was effective immediately.