The restriction on imported infected poultry into the region will be in effect until Rospotrebnadzor head Gennady Onishchenko sends written guarantees to the regional administration that poultry infected with avian influenza poses no threat to human health," the document says.
Onishchenko said at a press conference Thursday that the bird flu virus is killed at a temperature of more than 60 degrees Centigrade (more than 140 degrees Fahrenheit) and that he was ready to eat infected poultry after it was cooked. The document states that it is not mandatory for Onishchenko to eat diseased meat in public.
Three weeks ago, Kuzbas Regional Governor Aman Tuleyev requested that Onishchenko provide official documents guaranteeing that domestic poultry brought from the neighboring Novosibirsk Region posed no threat to the population of Kuzbas.
At a meeting in Novosibirsk in early August, Onishchenko criticized a ban on the importation of poultry into the Kemerovo region and promised to address the issue.
The regional administration's statement says that Kemerovo's regional governor again confirmed that his administration would not lift the ban on the importation of infected poultry from the territories affected by the bird flu.
The bird flu has been registered in the Altai Territory, the Republic of Altai, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tyumen, Kurgan, Chelyainsk and Kalmykia.
