Russia bans Mexican, US imports on swine flu fears

Russia, fearing the spread of swine flu, Sunday (April 26) banned meat imports from Mexico, several US states and nine Latin American nations, a spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.

It imposed the immediate ban after Putin ordered the establishment of a special commission to deal with the threat of swine flu, although no cases have yet been reported in Russia.

Imports of all raw meat and meat products from Mexico and the US states of Texas, California and Kansas shipped after April 21 are banned "until special instructions," health officials said.

Banned, too, are imports of raw pork from Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador shipped after April 21.

Pork imported from the US states of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Florida is also banned.

Health officials worldwide went on alert Sunday as a flu strain that has killed dozens of people in Mexico appeared to have spread as far as New Zealand, underscoring warnings of a potential pandemic.

Russia's top public health official, Gennady Onishchenko, said in televised comments that the ban represented a "first adequate reaction."

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told AFP that the special commission "would make corrections ... depending on the situation."