The Honduran government has decided to reopen its borders to chicken imports from Costa Rica after a two-month ban, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya announced at a press conference Friday.

President Oscar Arias received the news in a letter Friday, the same day the ban was lifted, Zelaya said.

Honduras decided to ban Costa Rican chicken imports June 23 after hundreds of animals in the Caribbean province of Limón were found to be infected with laryngotracheitis, a respiratory disease that affects birds but cannot be transmitted to humans (TT, July 14).

Honduras last week sent a group of experts to Costa Rica to inspect chicken and disease control in poultry farms and found the results satisfactory, according to Honduran Minister of Agriculture Héctor Hernández.

Upon hearing the news, Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz said he was “satisfied” and that Costa Rica will continue to be “vigilant of complying with regional commercial norms,” to avoid other “obstacles to exports that could negatively affect the poultry sector.”

The Foreign Trade Ministry indicated in a statement Friday that it had signed an agreement with the Honduran Agriculture Ministry to lift the ban.

-ACAN-EFE and Tico Times