The number of U.S. companies allowed to export poultry to Russia may be increased by the end of the week, a representative for Russia's sanitary watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, Alexei Alekseyenko said on Thursday.

On August 16, Russia lifted a ban on poultry imports from 68 U.S. companies whose production processes met Russian requirements and continued the ban on the remaining 19 companies that have not met the country's sanitation demands.

Currently, the number has been increased to 74.

"The [U.S. poultry] producers held inspections, eliminated the flaws that were there and provided us with detailed material on each company," Alekseyenko said. "We will make a decision after we study these materials."

Earlier Rosselkhoznadzor expressed concerns over the outbreak last week of the salmonella virus in the United States. Russia has asked the American Food and Drug Administration to submit a list of the farms that announced product recalls.

Russia expressed fears that poultry exported to the country from the United States may contain salmonella after some 550 million eggs were recalled in the U.S that were distributed in 14 different states.

The U.S. Poultry and Egg Council (USAPEEC) assured that all poultry meat products exported to Russia contain no salmonella bacteria.

U.S. poultry accounted for almost 80% of poultry imports to Russia. The U.S. import quota amounts to 600,000 tons in 2010.

On Jan. 1, 2010, Russia introduced new sanitary standards, banning the treatment of meat with chloride of a higher concentration than in drinking water. A difficult negotiating process between Russia and the United States began, while Russia was also negotiating poultry supplies with other states as well as trying to increase domestic production.

In June 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to lift the ban, but imports did not resume because of the high concentration of chloride in U.S. meat.

MOSCOW, August 26 (RIA Novosti)