U.S. Faces Wider Poultry Bans

WASHINGTON - Feb 24/04 - SNS -- The number of countries and regions banning imports of U.S. poultry and products rose sharply over night following the USDA's admission the strain of avian influenza found in the state of Texas was the highly pathogenic H5N2 strain.

South Korea, the Philippines and the European Union have imposed total ban on imports of U.S. poultry and products, including live poultry and eggs. Russia has imposed a partial ban and shippers in Texas are waiting to hear if Mexico will ban imports from their state.

In imposing its their ban, government officials in South Korea said 1,727 MT of U.S. chicken meat sitting in warehouses in the country will be returned to the United States. It is a relatively important market, taking and estimated 40,107 MT of U.S. chicken meat and 87 MT of duck meat in 2003.

Russia, the most important destination for poultry exported from the United States has only added Texas to the list of the states from which it will not accept poultry, but said it is considering a complete ban.

The ban on Texas was imposed last Friday, when state officials confirmed they had found the low pathogenic H7 strain. Russia had set a tariff rate quota for imports of poultry from the United States of 772,000 metric tons (MT) out of a total import allocation of 1.2 million MT.

In other news about avian influenza, China confirmed a case of the disease in Yunnan in the southwestern part of the country.