[CHICAGO] China has banned all imports of US poultry, poultry products and eggs amid recent reports of highly pathogenic strains of avian influenza found in the Pacific Northwest, the US Department of Agriculture said Monday.

All such products currently en route to the country will either be destroyed or returned, according to the agency and the US trade group USA Poultry & Egg Export Council.

The ban, effective as of Jan. 8, also applies to poultry breeding stock, which includes live chicks and hatching eggs.

From January through November last year, Moore said, US exporters of poultry products sent to China reached nearly US$290 million, said Toby Moore, spokesman for the trade group.

REUTERS