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Chief sanitary doctor advises Russians to eat only domestic meat

Russia has banned chilled meat (port and beef) imports from the United States since February 4 and frozen meat since February 11

MOSCOW, February 21 (Itar-Tass) – Russia’s chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko has advised Russian consumers to buy and eat domestically produced meat in connection with the current situation with foreign meat products.

“I would advise you to refrain from eating hamburgers and lasagna. An extra precaution has never done harm to anybody. The more so that Russian meat is now available in the market,” Onishchenko said in a live interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Thursday.

Russia has banned chilled meat (port and beef) imports from the United States since February 4 and frozen meat since February 11. Besides, restrictions have been imposed on imported Turkey meat and products made of it. The ban was prompted by the presence of Ractopamine, an agent used as a fodder additive to increase the muscle mass of pigs and cattle.

Onishchenko explained that a combination of Ractopamine with adrenoceptor blocking agents, which are often used in medicine to treat cardio-vascular diseases, in human organism can be dangerous for human health.

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