Russia bans poultry from Michigan

Russia has banned poultry and bird imports from the US state of Michigan where a bird flu virus was found in swans, Interfax news agency quoted Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev as saying yesterday.

The US Department of Agriculture said earlier this week that tests conducted in the state had found a strain of the bird flu virus in two wild swans. But the birds had not contracted the deadly H5N1 strain that killed more than 135 people in Asia, Africa and Europe.

"We must make sure that this dangerous infection will not be brought into Russia along with poultry meat imports," the agency quoted Gordeyev as saying.

Russia is a top consumer of US poultry, and Moscow and Washington signed a four-year deal last year under which the United States was allowed to ship 811,900 tonnes of poultry meat to Russia in 2005 out of a total quota of 1.09 million tonnes at a discount tariff.

The US poultry imports were to rise to 931,500 tonnes in 2009 under the deal.

- REUTERS