Life in General

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) - India has banned imports of live poultry from countries where bird flu has been reported as a precautionary measure, a government statement said.

"Import into India will be prohibited from countries with highly pathogenic avian influenza and low pathogenic avian influenza," the statement from India's foreign trade division said late Tuesday.

The ban covers the import of live chicks, ducks, turkey and other species of newly hatched birds, the statement quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency said.

The import of meat products from these birds is also banned, along with pigs and pork products.

Eggs and feathers also come under the ban, as does animal feed derived from any of the banned items, the statement said.

Last August, India announced it was free of bird flu, six months after the country first reported an outbreak, leading to the culling of some 60,000 birds.

Bird flu has hit poultry flocks across the world and killed more than 160 people since 2003. Wild migratory birds have been blamed for the global spread of the disease.

At present the deadly H5N1 strain remains overwhelmingly a disease of birds but experts fear it could mutate into a strain with the ability to pass from human to human.