May 6, 2009

Russia's federal food quality watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said Tuesday (May 5) it had banned the import of raw pork from the UK on fears of the A/H1N1 flu outbreak.

Quoting Rosselkhoznadzor's deputy head Nikolai Vlasov, Rosselkhoznadzor's press service said, "Another European Union country, Great Britain, has been banned from importing raw pork to Russia. Pork that has been thermally treated can still be imported."

Vlasov is quoted as saying that Russia assessed the attitude of individual governments in giving out information about the situation with H1N1 when deciding whether to ban pork imports.

He said Canada and the US were regularly publishing information about the spread of the disease, while most European states weren't disclosing such information.

Vlasov emphasised that only untreated pork had been banned. He said, "We have stopped the import of meat with which people have to work."

He said there were still no guarantees that the disease couldn't be transferred from pigs to people and from people to pigs, and the bans are on the basis of risk analysis.

In addition to the UK, Russia has also banned pig and pork imports from the US state of Delaware.

It follows bans on pork or meat imports generally from a string of places affected by H1N1, including Mexico, several US states, Canada and Spain.