SAN DIEGO.- The United States customs authorities recorded a 158% increase in the smuggling of Mexican chicken eggs through this city, while the country faces the shortage and lack of the product due to the avian flu outbreak that has been affecting the poultry industry for a year.
“The raw eggs and the birds of Corral de México are prohibited, will be confiscated in the entrance ports and who brought them faces a fine,” said the Jennifer officer of the O, of customs field operations and border protection.
The smuggers could face fines of up to 10,000 dollars, warned the director of field operations along the border of California, Sidney Aki.
The smuggling attempts have increased so far this fiscal year, which began last October.
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In supermarkets in San Diego County, the price of the egg increased in the last months of just under 3 dollars for a dozen on average to between almost 5 and 7 dollars. In general, in the country’s supermarkets the purchase of eggs per family is limiting.
The Department of Agriculture (FDA) reported that the outbreak has impacted millions of laying hens throughout the country.
The US Disease Control Centers (CDC) reported that the current outbreak will meet one year this March. However, egg scarcity only began to be noticed at the beginning of last January.
The officer warned in a statement that although the fever outbreak has been devastating for the poultry industry, egg smuggling and related articles could aggravate the circumstances.
Aki urged “a greater awareness to protect US agriculture from possible disease risks.”
He said that both smuggling eggs and “articles and dirty birds or used egg cards can transmit diseases, including Newcastle virulent”, highly contagious that mainly affects corral birds.
With EFE information
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