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Ukraine banned imports of poultry meat from four East-Asian countries
Ukraine has imposed a ban onto imports of poultry meat, poultry-origin products and raw materials, originated from Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, because of an outburst of a dangerous infectious disease - highly-contagious grippe, otherwise called "bird flu" - in the above countries, the Head of the State Department for Veterinary Medicine Petro Verbytsky told a news conference January 29, Interfax-Ukraine news agency informed.
The ban on the imports from Japan, Thailand and Vietnam was introduced since January 26, from Cambodia - since January 29.
Verbytsky said that imports of poultry from China had been prohibited still in September 2003, the imports from South Korea - in December 2003.
He said that these measures were of preventive character, as Ukraine did not virtually import poultry meat from the countries of South-East Asia.
He said that apart from the bans for the imports, the veterinary authorities had been assuming other measures to prevent the "bird flu" virus from getting onto the territory of Ukraine. In particular, the vet inspectorates are checking the poultry farms (the so called "bird factories") as regards observation of the closed operational regime, which is obligatory for such enterprises. Besides, the vet services intend to perform a laboratory monitoring of private peasant households.