Biosecurity Australia released the draft Import Risk Assessment for chicken meat on 28 June 2006. The draft IRA assesses importation risks and attempts to define circumstances under which importation of chicken meat may not expose Australia to an unacceptable risk.

There have been a number of concerns identified with respect to the draft IRA, and the Australian Chicken Growers Association, along with other stakeholders, will be making a detailed submission to Biosecurity Australia.

The draft IRA proposes to allow:

• Importation on raw chicken meat from countries, regions or compartments that claim to be free from a range of diseases and pathogens
• Importation from countries which are not free from avian influenza, Newcastle disease and certain strains of Salmonella, provided the meat is heated to a core temperature of 70 degrees for at least 1 minute, 12 minutes and 2.5 minutes respectively
• Importation from countires which are not free from very virulent or virulent infectious bursal disease virus, provided the meat is treated according to the existing cooked chicken meat protocol
• All heat treatment may be undertaken either off-shore or in Australia

The industry has a number of concerns, including:

• Need to establish disease freedom status in other countries and regions and compartments within countries, on an ongoing basis
• Need for more specific requirements to be incorporated in the IRA, specifying the circumstances under which zones and particularly compartments could be approved for export
• Confirmation that the proposed treatment regimes are adequate to kill all viruses or micro-organisms in or on the product, so as not to expose consumers or the industry to an unacceptable risk
• Monitoring of proposed treatments
  Cross-contamination issues
  

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