The Russian agricultural regulator introduced Monday a temporary ban on Italian poultry imports to Russia. The ban covers Italian imports of live poultry, eggs and all poultry products, as well as used equipment for keeping, slaughtering and processing poultry.
"Our poultry control is one of the strictest in Europe, and poultry deliveries to the domestic and foreign markets come exclusively from healthy birds," the Il Sole-24 ore newspaper quoted the minister as saying.
The daily said that although two outbreaks of the H5N2 virus, which is harmless to humans, had been detected in Italy, the country maintained bird flu under control.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), bird flu has killed 192 people around the world since late 2003.
