Lithuania bans poulty imports from Ukraine

Lithuania said on Tuesday it was to ban from the same day the importation of poultry and poultry-related products from Ukraine after avian flu virus was discovered there.

Lithuania's top veterinarian authority said the ban covers the importation of all kinds of birds and related poultry products from Ukraine, including live chicken, eggs, and chicken meat, said press reports reaching here from Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.

Ukrainian authorities announced Saturday the H5 strain of the avian flu virus had been found in five villages in the Crimea peninsula. More than 1,500 birds were killed within hours.

No human bird flu cases have been reported so far in Ukraine. The country's chief veterinarian Petro Verbytsky said the strain was unlikely to harm humans, but samples have been sent to European labs for further tests.

Experts said the spread of avian flu in Ukraine was mainly caused by contact of poultry with migratory birds carrying the bird flu virus.

Reports said a total of 117 people have been infected worldwide with avian flu virus since late 2003 and 69 of them have died.

The virus was first spreading in Southeast Asia and now avian flu cases have also been reported in European countries including Croatia, Sweden, Britain and Romania.

Source: Xinhua