Philippines suspends livestock and meat imports from 7 countries over FMD
The Philippine Department of Agriculture suspended imports of live animals and a defined list of animal products from seven Middle East and European economies following confirmed foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait and Palestine. Department Circular No. 39, signed by the Agriculture Secretary, covers live swine, cattle, water buffalo and other FMD-susceptible cloven-hoofed species, plus fresh skeletal muscle meat, casings, tallow, hooves, horns and animal semen from those origins. It took effect on 23 August 2026, and a second circular covering 23 further origins has since taken effect (see the update below).
Key facts
- Department Circular No. 39, signed by the Agriculture Secretary, suspends imports of live swine, cattle, water buffalo and other FMD-susceptible species from Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait and Palestine. It was issued on 5 August and took effect on 23 August 2026.
- The suspension also covers fresh skeletal muscle meat, casings, tallow, hooves, horns and animal semen from the seven origins; WOAH-defined 'safe commodities' (UHT milk, heat-treated canned meat, gelatin, processed hides) remain permitted.
- A second ban, Department Circular No. 46 (issued 28 August, effective 19 September 2026), covers all commodities derived from FMD-susceptible animals from 23 further origins, from Algeria to Zambia. The first ban has not been lifted.
Update, 1 October 2026: a second ban covers 23 more origins
The ban described in this item is Department Circular No. 39 (series of 2026), issued 5 August and effective 23 August 2026. The Department of Agriculture has since issued Department Circular No. 46, dated 28 August and effective 19 September 2026, which bans all commodities derived from FMD-susceptible animals, their products and by-products from Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, Comoros, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Eswatini, Gambia, Guinea, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia. The Department's circulars page, read on 1 October, shows no notice lifting the earlier ban. We did not compare the exemptions in the new circular with those described here.
The ban is not blanket across every animal-derived product from the seven countries: commodities the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) classifies as 'safe' under its FMD protocols — UHT milk, heat-treated canned meat, gelatin and processed hides — remain permitted, since those processing methods are recognised as neutralising the virus. Veterinary quarantine officers at Philippine ports have been directed to stop and confiscate any prohibited shipment reaching the border.
FMD poses no food-safety risk to humans and is not a public-health measure — it is a livestock-biosecurity measure protecting the Philippines' own cattle, pig and buffalo herds from a highly contagious animal disease. The distinction matters operationally: an exporter shipping a WOAH-safe processed product from one of the seven countries is not automatically blocked, but should confirm processing documentation matches WOAH's specific time/temperature protocols before assuming a shipment qualifies for the carve-out.
Why it matters
If you export live animals, fresh meat or the listed animal by-products from Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait or Palestine to the Philippines, that channel is closed until the ban lifts — but heat-treated and WOAH-recognised processed products from the same origins can still ship if your documentation proves the qualifying treatment was applied. Exporters from the 23 origins in Circular No. 46 (effective 19 September) face a ban on all commodities derived from FMD-susceptible animals, and we have not compared its exemptions with those described here.