Russia-More meat bans.

RUSSIA-MORE BANS PUT IN PLACE.

Russia banned imports of US pork from 13 states and halted shipments of beef and poultry from five of them, following the outbreak of swine flu, Bloomberg reports Wednesday. China , Kazakhstan and St. Lucia also imposed pork bans.

Imports of all three meats from California , Texas , Kansas , New York and Ohio were halted by Russia as of April 21, according to a statement today on the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service Web site.

Russia also won’t accept pork or pork products from Alabama , Arizona , Arkansas , Georgia , Louisiana , New Mexico , Oklahoma and Florida , the USDA said in the statement. Russia was the largest importer of US poultry and the fourth-largest buyer of US pork last year, according to USDA data.

US government officials are concerned that the flu will prompt countries to ban pork unnecessarily. Restrictions "resulting from the recent outbreak do not appear to be based on scientific evidence and may result in serious trade disruptions without cause," Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today in an e-mailed statement.

The US Embassy in Moscow urged Russia to overturn a partial ban on American meat because of the outbreak, saying "there’s no evidence that the virus is transmitted by meat."

The Americans "are protecting the interests of their exporters and this is all," said Alexei Alekseenko, a spokesman for Russian veterinary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, by phone from Brussels .