EU suspends import of poultry meat from Ukraine over bird flu concerns

The European Union has suspended imports of poultry meat from Ukraine despite previous partnership agreements.

"According to an operational report, which was received from the European Commission yesterday, the import of poultry meat, poultry meat products, and thermally unprocessed poultry products has been temporarily suspended from Ukraine to the EU. At the same time, eggs and egg products are not subject to said restrictions," the press service of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection said.

It is noted that Ukraine, in accordance with international obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), promptly notified its international trading partners about the detection of a bird flu case.

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Ukraine's measures to control and eliminate bird flu are recognized as equivalent to those carried out by EU member states.

"Given the reports of numerous equivalence assessment missions, the results of negotiations and preliminary agreements, the relevant decision of the EU is truly unexpected for the Ukrainian side," reads the report.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the OIE said on Monday Ukraine had reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu on a farm in the west-central part of the country, the first of such outbreak in nearly three years.