EU Halts Poultry Imports From Six Zones in Canada, the UK and the US
12 October 2026, Brussels: The European Commission has suspended imports of live poultry, hatching eggs and fresh poultry and game bird meat from six specific zones in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, after highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was confirmed at premises in all three countries over a ten day stretch in late September and early October.
The suspension took effect from October 8, 2026, under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2268, dated October 7 and published in the Official Journal of the European Union the following day. The regulation amends Annexes V and XIV of the EU’s existing animal health import rules (Implementing Regulation 2021/404) and applies only to the named zones, not to the three countries as a whole. The affected areas are Manitoba (two zones) and Alberta in Canada, the Isle of Lewis area of Scotland in the UK, and Stearns County, Minnesota, and Jay County, Indiana, in the United States. The outbreaks behind the ban involve the H5N1, H5N5 and H5 strains of the virus, with confirmation dates running from September 23 in Manitoba to October 2 in Scotland.
Scotland’s case ends a disease free run
The Scottish outbreak, at a backyard poultry flock near Ness on the Isle of Lewis, is Great Britain’s first HPAI case of the 2026-27 season, which opened on October 1. Its confirmation means Great Britain has lost its HPAI disease free status for trade purposes, a designation that matters because many importing countries, including the EU under this regulation, use it to decide whether a shipment needs extra certification or should be blocked outright. British authorities have placed a 3 kilometre protection zone and a 10 kilometre surveillance zone around the infected premises. Matthew Steel, poultry chairman at NFU Scotland, called the confirmed case “deeply concerning” and urged all poultry keepers, regardless of flock size, to stay vigilant for signs of disease and to tighten biosecurity.
The North American cases predate the Scottish one. Manitoba’s two affected zones were confirmed on September 23, Alberta’s on September 25, Minnesota’s on September 28 and Indiana’s on September 30. Because the EU’s rules work zone by zone rather than country by country, poultry and poultry products from unaffected regions of Canada and the United States can continue moving into the EU market without interruption. That zonal approach, agreed between the EU and its major trading partners after repeated avian flu waves in recent years, is designed to avoid blanket bans that would otherwise freeze trade across entire countries every time a single farm reports a case.
A widening seasonal pattern
The cluster of five confirmed outbreaks across three countries within ten days points to the familiar autumn pattern in which HPAI spreads along wild bird migration routes into commercial and backyard flocks in the northern hemisphere. The 2025-26 season was one of the most severe on record for poultry producers in North America and Europe, with repeated culls, regional housing orders and periodic suspensions of trade in specific zones. The early confirmation of cases in Canada, the US and the UK within the first weeks of the new season suggests this winter could follow a similar trajectory, though it is too early to say whether the outbreaks will remain contained to these six zones or spread further.
For producers inside the affected zones, the immediate effect is a loss of access to the EU market for live birds, hatching eggs and fresh meat until the zones are cleared of infection and the suspension is lifted, a process that typically takes several months and depends on surveillance results. Buyers in the EU and elsewhere who sourced breeding stock, hatching eggs or meat from these specific regions will need to find alternative suppliers for the duration of the ban.
This kind of zonal trade action carries weight well beyond the three countries named in the regulation. India’s poultry industry, like much of Asia’s, depends on imported grandparent and parent stock to maintain the genetic base of its layer and broiler flocks, and the US, Canada and the UK are among the handful of countries approved to supply that breeding material globally. Any disruption to breeding stock flows out of North America or the UK, even from a handful of named zones, adds a layer of uncertainty that Indian hatcheries and integrators watch closely when planning import schedules. At the same time, Brazil and other Latin American poultry exporters, which operate largely free of the HPAI strains currently circulating in the EU’s trading partners, stand to pick up incremental EU demand that would otherwise have gone to the restricted zones, reinforcing a trend that has already lifted Brazilian poultry export volumes over the past two avian flu seasons.
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