China Bans U.S. Chicken Imports

China announced Tuesday that it was banning all poultry and poultry products from the United States, citing bird flu fears.

China's action came after Poland, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea banned U.S. poultry imports, in reaction to the discovery of avian flu in a flock of chickens in Delaware.

Hong Kong enacted a more limited ban, affecting only live birds and poultry from Delaware.

Russia, the single largest foreign market for U.S. poultry, said Monday it is temporarily banning the import of most poultry products from Delaware.

In Beijing Tuesday, an emergency notice from the Ministry of Agriculture said U.S. poultry products that have already arrived at Chinese ports would be returned or destroyed.

The notice, carried by the government's Xinhua News Agency, said China was suspending new import permits for U.S. poultry and canceling any permits already issued.

According to the Chinese Agriculture Ministry, in 2003 the country's total import of poultry meats and products was 709,000 tons - 96 percent of which came from the United States.

That's a small fraction of China's poultry market; the country produced more than 9.9 million tons of chicken meat alone last year - 20 percent of total worldwide production.

China itself is a large chicken-farming country, and bird flu is confirmed or suspected in 14 of the nation's 31 regions.

China has slaughtered millions of fowl to try to contain the disease's spread and inoculated millions more.

The government has reported no human cases of bird flu.

In December, China banned beef products from the United States after a case of mad cow disease was reported there. That prohibition has not been rescinded.

In the U.S., government and poultry industry leaders are working to assess and address the bird flu situation in Delaware.

Tests on 19 of 20 chicken houses in central Delaware were negative for avian influenza, and results are expected soon on the final house.

The disease was found on a farm in southern Kent County operated by an independent grower who sold to the live bird market in New York City.

State officials immediately ordered the slaughter of 12,000 birds and began testing flocks within a 2-mile radius of the infected site.