LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - South Africa announced on Thursday it was banning imports of all poultry products from Britain after an outreak of the deadly H5N1 virus was discovered on a turkey farm in eastern England last weekend.

Earlier this week, Russia, Hong Kong, Japan, Ukraine, South Korea announced import restrictions on British poultry meat imports.

South Africa was the ninth largest purchaser of UK poultry meat in 2006, importing an estimated 6,500 tonnes.

Indonesia, St. Vincent and Macedonia are also reported to have implemented bans, while several other countries are said to be considering full or partial embargos.

Bosnia has confirmed that poultry meat imported from eastern England is outlawed, while Ireland has imposed a ban on the import of birds for gatherings or shows.

European Union veterinary experts advised member countries on Tuesday to keep poultry indoors in recognised high-risk bird flu areas. It said a global ban on British poultry exports would be unjustified.

Although no EU members have unilaterally implemented import bans on UK poultry meat, Ireland is facing potential legal action from the European Commission over their partial ban, an EU official said on Wednesday.

The Irish Times reported on Thursday that Ireland's Department of Agriculture is rejecting these claims.

BRITISH POULTRY

Almost 160,000 turkeys were culled on Monday after the discovery of the highly pathogenic bird flu strain on a farm in Suffolk run by Europe's largest turkey producer, Bernard Matthews.

A buffer zone with a radius of 1.8 miles (3 km) has been created around the infected farm, with a further 4.5 miles (7 km) under so-called targeted surveillance.

Britain exported over 270,000 tonnes of poultry in 2006, the Britain Poultry Council said on Tuesday.

Richard Griffiths, the Council's senior executive officer, said about 40,000 tonnes or 15 percent of Britain's total poultry exports went to those countries that had confirmed import bans.

He said it was hard to put a figure on how much poultry came from the farms inside the quarantine zone and the monitoring area. "The UK poultry industry is fairly well spread across the country," he said.

Largest British Poultry Meat Importers in 2006

(in tonnes)

1. Netherlands 65,000 2. Ireland 40,000

3. France 25,000

4. Russia* 17,000

5. Spain 13,000

6. Hong Kong* 11,000

7. Poland 11,000

8. Germany 11,000

9. South Africa* 6,500

10. Benin 4,750

11. Belgium 4,500

12. Liechtenstein 4,000

13. Denmark 3,500

14. Ukraine* 2,500

15. St. Vincent* 1,500

16. Latvia 1,500

17. Czech Republic 1,500

18. Ghana 1,250

19. China 1,250

Rest of the World 45,000

TOTAL 270,750

*denotes countries currently banning British poultry meat imports

Source: British Poultry Council

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