Salmonella fears may prompt Russian ban of US poultry
Russia is considering imposing restrictions on poultry imports from the United States due to an outbreak of salmonellosis, Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor), has announced.
Most recently, the infection caused by salmonella bacteria was spreading rapidly throughout the United States, with 278 people infected in the past six months.
According to official information during mid-July the US Department of Agriculture warned that the poultry produced on three of the Foster Farms factories in California might be dangerous.
“At the moment this dangerous disease has spread to half of US states and into numerous poultry farms. This cannot fail to arouse our concerns. This may become a reason to introduce restrictions,” Alexey Alexeenko, a representative of Rosselkhoznadzor said.
Rosselkhoznadzor’s specialists are currently examining the risks and the decision on US poultry import is expected to made in the following days.
“It will be made in two-three days,” noted Alexeenko, “and in the following two or three weeks the restrictions may be imposed.”
In April, Rosselkhoznadzor suspended the shipments of poultry from California over the outbreak of bird flu. At the moment 270 US producers are licensed to supply poultry to Russia. Yet only 10 of them have received the requisite permissions.
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