DUSHANBE, March 14 (RIA Novosti) - Tajikistan has introduced temporary restrictions on poultry imports from Russia, Turkey, Japan, China, Thailand, Iran and Pakistan, the country's chief veterinary official said Friday.
The decision was made in response to recent outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 virus in those countries, Mullojon Amirbekov said.
He said the two-month ban was part of tougher control measures launched earlier this month, and would cover imports of eggs, poultry meat and poultry products.
Simultaneously, Ukraine's veterinary control department has banned poultry imports from Russia's Kaluga Region because of bird flu and from Japan's Toyama prefecture following an outbreak of Newcastle bird disease.
According to the World Health Organization, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has infected at least 273 people from 11 countries and claimed 167 human lives since it first appeared in Asia in 2003.
It has since spread worldwide, and scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form transmissible between humans, sparking a global pandemic.
Russia's food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on February 28 that a bird flu outbreak that hit Moscow and the Moscow Region on February 10 had been contained and its reoccurrence in the future was highly unlikely.
Until then, outbreaks have occurred only in southern provinces and in Siberia, while Russia recorded its first cases of avian flu in August 2005.
Rosselkhoznadzor said Wednesday Tajikistan's ban is irrational, as it includes poultry from all Russian territory and not from those regions where bird flu cases have been registered.
"It is highly unusual because Russia is a large country, and the ban has embraced the entire country, which is not quite rational," press secretary Alexei Alexeyenko told RIA Novosti.
He also said the imposed restrictions will not affect Russia, as the country is not a large poultry exporter.
