June 17, 2009

Russia has lifted a ban on meat imports from the US state of Washington, softened a ban on Texas and banned live pigs and raw pork imports from New Jersey due to the AH1N1 virus, it said on Tuesday (June 16).

Russian animal and plant watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said the virus situation in Washington and Texas had improved, while it had worsened in New Jersey.

The head of Rosselkhoznadzor Sergei Dankvert said earlier this month that he believed the bans on imports from the US states could be lifted shortly, but on Tuesday (June 16), there were no indications of any move towards totally removing the prohibitions.

Major meat importer Russia applies two types of ban arising from fears of the flu spreading.

The spread of the AH1N1 flu virus, commonly known as swine flu, is not caused by pigs and pork, but some countries including Russia have reacted to the name of the disease. Russia has so far registered only three cases of the flu.

A ban on imports of all types of meat is applied to Mexico, Central American and Caribbean states, as well as the US states of Illinois and Wisconsin and Canada's Ontario province.

A softer ban on imports of live pigs and raw pork is applied to the US states of Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah.

The same ban applies to the Canadian province of Quebec, the whole of Britain and the Japanese prefectures of Osaka, Hyogo and Shiga.