4.3.2015   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 60/31

(1)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 (3) lays down veterinary certification requirements for imports into and transit, including storage during transit, through the Union of poultry and poultry products (‘the commodities’). It provides that the commodities may only be imported into and transit through the Union from the third countries, territories, zones or compartments listed in columns 1 and 3 of the table in Part 1 of Annex I thereto.

(2)

Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 also lays down the conditions for a third country, territory, zone or compartment to be considered as free from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

(3)

The United States is listed in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 as a third country from which imports into and transit through the Union of the commodities covered by that Regulation are authorised from certain parts of its territory depending on the presence of HPAI outbreaks. That regionalisation was recognised by Regulation (EC) No 798/2008, as amended by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/243 (4), following outbreaks of HPAI in the States of Oregon and Washington.

(4)

An Agreement between the Union and the United States (5) provides for a swift mutual recognition of regionalisation measures in the event of outbreaks of a disease in the Union or in the United States (‘the Agreement’).

(5)

The United States confirmed the presence of HPAI of subtype H5N2 in a poultry flock in the State of Idaho on 20 January 2015 and the presence of HPAI of subtype H5N8 in the State of California on 23 January 2015. The veterinary authorities of the United States immediately suspended issuing veterinary certificates for consignments of commodities intended for export to the Union from those States and from part of the State of Oregon, which have been placed under veterinary restrictions in relation to the new outbreaks. The United States has also implemented a stamping-out policy in order to control HPAI and limit its spread.

(6)

Following those outbreaks in the States of Idaho and California, the United States submitted updated information on the epidemiological situation on its territory and the measures it has taken to prevent the further spread of HPAI which has now been evaluated by the Commission. On the basis of that evaluation, as well as the commitments laid down in the Agreement and the guarantees provided by the United States, it is appropriate to extend the prohibition on the introduction into the Union of certain commodities to cover those parts of the States of Idaho, California and Oregon, which the veterinary authorities of the United States have placed under restrictions due to the current outbreaks. The entry for the United States in the list in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 should therefore be amended to take account of the current epidemiological situation in that third country.

(7)

Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(8)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,