October 31, 2006

US agrees to buy poultry from Israel

The US has allowed imports of Israeli poultry as improvements were made to Israeli slaughterhouse standards and facility hygiene. 

For the past year, the US has refused to accept poultry from Israel after inspections showed that slaughter procedures failed to meet America's criteria.

The inspection judged that Israeli poultry facilities did not meet American requirements and standards. Furthermore, some of the facilities inspected in Israel were considered to have low hygiene.

Israeli slaughterhouses have changed the standards, expanded supervision and improved the enforcement system of veterinarian services in the slaughterhouses, Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon said.

Israel reported its first case of bird flu in March this year, where hundreds of poultry were killed in a farm in the Negev desert east of the Gaza border.