OTTAWA: Saudi Arabia announced a suspension of chicken import from Ontario over an avian flu outbreak in the Canadian province.
The Food and Drug Authority said the temporary ban would last until the situation in Canada returns to normal.
On March 29, Saudi Arabia announced a ban on the import of live chicken from six U.S. states. A similar ban was imposed on March 10 on chicken imports from Thailand.
Twenty-nine farms in Ontario are now under quarantine, following confirmation of the presence of H5N1 virus in one turkey farm there.
H5N1 is a highly pathogenic bird flu virus that has led to dramatic outbreaks in the domestic poultry industries in the Middle East and some parts of Asia. The first human infection was recorded in Hong Kong in 1997, with almost 650 cases reported since 2003 across 15 countries.
