#6 - JRL 7243
pravda.ru
June 27, 2003
Is American Chicken Safe for Russians?
Every second chicken imported from the USA is unsafe for health

Recently, Director of the Central Veterinary Department in the republic of Udmurtia Gennady Burdov visited US poultry farms. The vet shares his experience of the visit. Russia's Agriculture Ministry sent a group of 10 people to inspect 334 American poultry farms wishing to supply their products to the Russian market. The visit lasted within the period of April 28 v June 5. As it turned out in the framework of the inspection, only half of the 334 American poultry farms meet the Russian quality standards. According to Gennay Burdov, examination of the poultry processing procedure posed the most serious problem. Some of American poultry farms don't examine chicken meat for salmonellosis bacteria, antibiotics, pesticides and hormonal agents. What is more, the hygienic regulations are disregarded at some of the farms: finished products are sometimes kept in the same department with live chicken. Other violations discovered during the inspection were non-observance of the temperature regime, many workers had no working clothes on and poor veterinary control over chicken killing. In Russia, farmers define the quality of chicken meat by the condition of the internals, while Americans define the quality judging by chicken appearance.

July 1 is the deadline for officials of Russia's Agriculture Ministry to solve a serious problem which of the US poultry farms can be allowed to the Russian market.

Yelena Glinskaya
Tovarisch