USDA Investigates Disappearance Of Smuggled Poultry
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Several boxes of smuggled poultry products have gone missing from a Michigan warehouse amid government surveillance activities to prevent illegal imports from countries known to have suffered outbreaks of highly pathogenic bird flu, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman said.
After the discovery and destruction of about 2,000 pounds of poultry products smuggled into Troy, Mich., from China - a country battling the deadly H5N1 form of bird flu - in early June, USDA officials were called back by Michigan authorities later that month.
On June 27, USDA spokesman Ed Loyd said, federal and state officials detained 150 pounds of smuggled poultry and pig carcasses. The next week, when USDA returned to the location in Genesee County, four boxes of smuggled goose intestines had disappeared and been replaced with "chicken parts."
Loyd said, "An investigation is being conducted into the criminal violation related to the goose intestines."
Ron DeHaven, administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said earlier this year the government is increasing its inspection of imports coming from countries that are banned from shipping birds and poultry products to the U.S.
"What's important is it only takes one smuggled shipment that contains the (H5N1) virus to have catastrophic consequences," DeHaven said.
The deadly H5N1 strain, which hasn't been found in the U.S., is one of many highly pathogenic forms of bird flu, but there are other forms of the disease, including low-pathogenic types that aren't harmful to humans.
USDA's Loyd said it is standard practice for the government to destroy the smauggled poultry products it seizes without testing for bird flu.
"Sample testing of seized product would not provide food safety assurance, because a single shipment often contains products from multiple sources and therefore different levels of potential exposure to pathogens," he said.
Poultry, when properly cooked, is safe to eat, according to USDA. "Cooking to an internal temperature of 165 degrees (Fahrenheit) kills all bacteria and viruses."