Philippines bans imports of birds From Australia over disease outbreak; two-year-old girl in Australia down with H1N1

MANILA (Bloomberg/AFP): The Philippines has banned imports of birds and poultry products from Australia following recent cases of H1N1 bird flu in the country.

There were reported outbreaks of H7N3 and H7N9 - subtypes of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus - on May 23 and May 25 in the state of Victoria, as confirmed by the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, Manila’s Department of Agriculture said in a statement on Saturday.