VZCZCXYZ0006
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMO #0685/01 0791057
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 201057Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC PRIORITY 5464
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2460
INFO RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA 4724
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 5287

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