PRINTER'S NO. 3722
No. 329 Session of 1988
INTRODUCED BY MORRIS, RUDY, BATTISTO, BILLOW, BOWLEY, BROUJOS,
HALUSKA, LLOYD, MAINE, SHOWERS, YANDRISEVITS, WASS, CHADWICK,
FARGO, HERSHEY, HONAMAN AND SEMMEL, SEPTEMBER 27, 1988
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON RULES, SEPTEMBER 28, 1988
A RESOLUTION
1 Memorializing Congress to endorse the importation of this
2 Commonwealth's poultry products into the Republic of West
3 Germany.
4 WHEREAS, The commercial poultry industry in Pennsylvania has
5 an estimated 1988 worth of $600 million; and
6 WHEREAS, The avian disease surveillance program in
7 Pennsylvania was initiated to prevent the reintroduction of
8 avian influenza (AI) into the commercial poultry industry; and
9 WHEREAS, The program requires ten blood samples from every
10 chicken or turkey flock slaughtered in Pennsylvania and ten eggs
11 from every layer flock every month to be submitted to a State
12 laboratory for testing for the presence of AI antibody; and
13 WHEREAS, The legal basis for this sampling program rests in
14 the so-named "quarantine" which has been left in place for that
15 purpose only, with approximately 14,000 total samples tested
16 each month since 1986 and no positive samples being found; and
17 WHEREAS, Pennsylvania is the only State to test so
18 extensively, but is the only poultry production State to be
1 denied importation rights by the Republic of West Germany on the
2 basis of the quarantine and surveillance program; and
3 WHEREAS, Scientific evidence supports that processed or raw
4 poultry meat products containing avian influenza pose no risk of
5 AI disease transmission to humans; and
6 WHEREAS, Any embargo of Pennsylvania's nutritious poultry
7 products solely upon the basis of the AI quarantine or resulting
8 mandated surveillance procedure is a discriminatory measure and,
9 recognizing this, any importation barriers should be lifted
10 immediately; therefore be it
11 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania
12 memorialize the United States Congress to take whatever measures
13 are necessary to permit the importation of Pennsylvania poultry
14 products into the Republic of West Germany; and be it further
15 RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to
16 the presiding officers of each house of Congress and to each
17 member of Congress from Pennsylvania.
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