Is there a risk to importing pet birds that come from countries experiencing outbreaks of avian influenza A?

Dr. David Acheson
Chief Medical Officer
Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition, USFDA

The USDA regulates the importation of rural poultry from areas of the world where there’s been bird flu.  So they essentially pay attention to that.  The Centers for Disease Control also have a role to play here, in that they regulate the importation of live birds, pet birds, that kind of thing.  And similarly, they prevent the importation of birds like that from areas of the world where there may have been a problem.  The Food and Drug Administration has a different role.  We have responsibility for certain products like shell eggs or certain poultry products that get used in dietary supplements.  And in order for those to be imported and used in the United States they have to have been treated in an appropriate way to destroy virus either through a heat process or some other chemical process so that the virus is destroyed. So there are a number of safeguards that are put in place to prevent infected poultry, infected poultry products coming into the United States.