Russia might ban US chicken imports

Acting Russian Agriculture Minister Alexey Gordeyev said at a meeting of the Federation Council that US chicken imports might be banned completely in Russia. According to Gordeyev, his ministry is consulting with counterparts in the USA currently. The acting minister reiterated that cases of bird flue had been found in Delaware and Texas. If similar cases are found in other states, unfortunately Russia will have to stop importing US chicken meat, the acting minister added. He mentioned that the American quota of chicken meat imports was 770,000 tons in 2004.