Source:  Christine Steffens,  MEATINGPLACE.COM, 9/28/10

Russia has reinstated the eligibility of pork exports to two Smithfield Foods Inc. processing plants after a month-long ban, according to Reuters.

However, Neil Gaffney, spokesman for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, cannot confirm the lifted ban.

The news comes after a story by Meatingplace in August stating Russia halted product imported by the two Smithfield facilities run by Farmland Foods out of Milan, Mo., and Denison, Iowa.

An Interfax report out of Russia, according to Reuters, said the country banned pork exports from the two facilities last month due to detected traces of the antibiotic oxytetracycline.

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