According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, turkeys at a farm in Pendleton County in West Virginia tested positive April 3 for the bird-flu virus. Preliminary tests indicated the turkeys had a low-pathogenic H5N2 strain of the virus.
"Due to an outbreak of bird flu virus containing H5N2 strains registered in the U.S. state of West Virginia, Rosselkhoznadzor is introducing temporary restrictions on imports of poultry products, feed-stuff and feed supplements from this state," said Alexei Alekseyenko, a spokesman for the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Inspection.
The official said that restrictions will apply for poultry produced after March 31.
The high-pathogenic version of the avian influenza, H5N1, poses a threat to humans.
Since 2003, when bird flu first hit Asian countries, 281 people around the world have contracted the disease and 169 of them have died, according to the latest data released by the World Health Organization. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, sparking a pandemic across the world.
Rosselkhoznadzor has requested that U.S. food safety authorities provide Russia with detailed information on the bird flu outbreak in the country.
