RUSSIAN VET SERVICE DELISTS 3 MORE

UNCLAS MOSCOW 000685 SENSITIVE SIPDIS USDA FAS FOR OCRA/KUYPERS, NENON; OSTA/BEAN, HAXTON; ONA/TING, SALLYARDS PASS FSIS DUTROW, HARRIES PASS APHIS SNOWDON STATE FOR EUR/RUS STATE PASS USTR FOR CHATTIN, HAFNER, S MURPHY BRUSSELS PASS APHIS/FERNANDEZ VIENNA PASS APHIS/MITCHELL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAGR ETRD ECON WTO RS SUBJECT: RUSSIAN VET SERVICE DELISTS 3 MORE POULTRY FACILITIES REF: A) HANSEN/DUTROW EMAIL 3/19/09 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Russian Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service (VPSS) advised via official letter that 3 more U.S. poultry facilities were delisted after tests results ostensibly showed the presence of antibiotics and pharmaceuticals in shipments to Russia from those plants. The original scanned copy of the letter and courtesy translation were sent to FAS/FSIS on March 19, 2009 (REF A). An informal embassy translation of the letter follows. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) BEGIN TEXT: Moscow, March 18, 2009 No. FS-NV-2/2236 Assistant Administrator Office of International Affairs USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Dear Dr. Jones: The Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service (VPSS) extends its regards to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and informs you of the following: During monitoring tests of the residues of harmful and prohibited substances, antibiotic doxycycline, oxytetracycline and coccidiostatic nikarbazin were revealed in chicken leg quarters exported from the United States to the Russian Federation (Protocols 4515 and 4516 of February 26, 2009; Protocols 4425 and 4428 of February 26, 2009; Protocol 4429 of February 26, 2009). The products were manufactured at U.S. poultry establishments P-243, P-7264, and P-890 (veterinary certificates RFA-057227 of December 10, 2008; RFA-049680 of November 23, 2008; RFA- 057566 of October 31, 2008; RFA-035247 of November 07, 2008). This incident is in direct violation of the requirements of the negotiated veterinary certificate for the poultry and poultry by- products exported to the Russian Federation from the United States. In this connection, VPSS informs you that temporary restrictions will be imposed on the exports of products from the above-mentioned U.S. poultry establishments to the Russian Federation as of March 27, 2009. VPSS requests that you conduct an investigation of the above-mentioned cases and take measures for preventing the shipments of products to the Russian Federation that do not comply with the requirements of the Russian Federation and the negotiated veterinary certificate. Once the investigation is completed, please inform VPSS with the results of and the preventing measures that FSIS will take to stop these types of occurrences from taking place in the future. Mr. Jones, let me assure you of my highest esteem. Attachment: on 15 pages (not included in this cable) Deputy Head N.A. Vlasov END TEXT. ¶3. (SBU) Russia's veterinary service began delisting dozens of EU pork packing plants (and several U.S. pork plants) in 2008 for allegedly exceeding minimum residue levels for antibiotics. Russian MRL limits do not conform to international standards and are so low they approach the threshold of detection. Embassy and other observers view these delistings as an instance of pure protectionism, and an action paralleling recent delistings of poultry plants for food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella. Carried to an extreme, these measures potentially could shut down U.S. exports of pork to Russia. Similar restrictions related to Salmonella may soon threaten poultry meat trade as well. -------------- A SANPIN PRIMER -------------- ¶4. (U) The mechanism apparently being used, delisting for exceeding maximum permissible residue levels of antibiotics, involves application of Russia's Soviet-era Sanitary Rules and Norms (SanPiN) that are significantly more stringent than international standards set forth in Codex Alimentarius. Russian official requirements for MRLs of antibiotics are listed in SanPiN section 2.3.2.1078-01. The current document was approved by Gennadiy Onishchenko, Chief Medical Officer of the Russian Federation on June 11, 2001, but it contains the Soviet Union's legacy norms. Clause 4.1, Chemical and Biological Pollutants, states that meat and poultry meat, fresh, chilled and frozen, should meet the following indicators with regard to antibiotics: Laevomycetine - no more than 0.01 Unit per gram Tetracycline group - no more than 0.01 Unit per gram Grisin - no more then 0.5 Unit per gram Bacitracin - no more than 0.02 Unit per gram Thus the MRL for tetracycline and oxytetracycline is no more then 0.01 Unit per gram for fresh pork and poultry. ¶5. (U) These units of measure ("units per gram") are not the units found in either Codex Alimentarius or in EU regulations. Russia uses a completely different methodology, in compliance with guidelines approved by the Ministry of Public Health of the USSR in 1984. Tetracycline is revealed in a product by measuring its ability to inhibit growth of standard microorganisms (a special strain of Bacillus cereus). The activity is measured in Units. According to Russian pharmaceutical manuals 1,000,000 Units equals 1 gram of good quality tetracycline. ¶6. (U) Most Russian laboratories use this methodology, but a few labs, including the residue-testing lab of the All-Russian Federal Scientific-research Institute for Control, Standardization and Certification of Veterinary Preparations (VGNKI) are equipped with modern LC- MS (Liquid Chromatography with Mass Spectrometry) equipment, which allows detection of low levels of tetracycline in samples measured by weight, e.g., micrograms. In the case of detection of antibiotics for the U.S. poultry plants mentioned in the letter, the tests were obviously conducted in VGNKI. COMMENT: Washington addressees should be aware that Russia's current CVO, Dr. Nikolay Vlasov, worked in that institute before joining VPSS, so he knows well the specialists in the institute and their abilities. END COMMENT. ¶7. (U) By applying a conversion factor, one can calculate that the Russian MRL for tetracycline group antibiotics in meat and poultry is equal to 10 micrograms per kg (or 20 times more stringent than the international standard). It is also 10 times more stringent than the EU standard. ¶8. (U) The Russian MRL is in fact close to the minimal threshold sensitivity of the microbiological method recommended for Russian veterinary laboratories. Russian specialists believe that level to be almost zero from the sanitary point of view and informally consider it an unrealistic level in day-to-day practice. -------------- COMMENTS -------------- ¶9. (SBU) The agreed veterinary certificate for export of U.S. pork and poultry to Russia stipulates, "Meat and meat by-products do not contain harmful residues of the following compounds: natural or synthetic estrogenic or hormonal substances, thyreostatics, antibiotics or tranquilizers." It is thus a question of what constitutes a harmful residue - the Codex MRL, or something lower. As one of our trade contacts put it, it is hard to find any meat and poultry in the U.S. (or in Russia) that does not contain even minute antibiotic residues. Thus, an unreasonably low threshold gives the Russian government the protectionist tool it needs to restrict U.S. meat and poultry exports to Russia. BEYRLE