WRAPUP 3-Russia widens US pork ban, threatens full shutdown

* Russia bans imports from 13 U.S. plants in past 2 weeks

* Watchdog cites antibiotic, says more bans could follow

* U.S. Trade Representative says bans not based on science

* Only 6 U.S. pork plants left that can export to Russia (Updates with comment from U.S. Trade Representative office, paragraphs 2, 5, 6)

By Bob Burgdorfer and Aleksandras Budrys

CHICAGO/MOSCOW, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Russia widened its ban on U.S. pork imports on Thursday, citing the presence of an antibiotic, and the country also threatened to completely seal its borders to pork from the United States.

Russia's expansion of its ban to four more U.S. meat plants comes at a time when U.S. hog producers were turning the corner after more than two years of losses estimated by industry at more than $5 billion. U.S. trade officials called the bans unjustified.

The bans by Russia, the No 5 market for U.S. pork, included U.S. plants owned by Smithfield Foods Inc. (SFD.N), the largest pork producer in the United States, whose shares fell sharply.

Sergei Dankvert, head of Russia's farm watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, told Reuters more bans could follow. The watchdog cited presence of the antibiotic oxytetracycline, the same factor that led it to ban imports from seven other U.S. plants earlier in December. [ID:nGEE5B812Z]

The U.S. Trade Representative's office in Washington said the bans were not justified. It said it would work with Moscow to get trade back on track.

"The Administration is concerned that current Russian standards are not based on international standards and do not have a scientific justification," a spokeswoman with the U.S. Trade Representative's office said in an email to Reuters.

Sergei Yushin, head of a Russian lobby, the National Meat Association, said Russia might completely halt U.S. pork due to delays in agreeing on meat safety certification.

The U.S. pork industry was hit hard earlier this year as the spread of the H1N1 flu, commonly known as swine flu, cut demand for pork even though there was no scientific evidence to show that eating pork helped to transmit the disease.

Hog futures LHc1 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange fell in early trading, but rebounded to end higher.

"It's not good news by any means for (U.S.) hog producers," said John Lawrence, extension livestock economist at Iowa State University. "The sector has been on an up-trend since August (2009) after making losses since October 2007."

U.S. MEAT GROUP WORKS TO GET EXPORTS BACK ON TRACK

The U.S. Meat Export Federation said it was working with other industry groups and the U.S. government to help get U.S. pork exports to Russia back on track.

The group said Russia had banned pork imports from 13 U.S. pork plants the past two weeks, cutting the number of approved plant to six from a high of about 40 earlier this year.

The group said the remaining six plants accounted for only about 5 percent of U.S. export volume that had been approved for export to Russia one year ago. Federation data showed the volume of U.S. pork sales to Russia down 37 percent to almost 105,700 tonnes for the Jan-Sep 2009 period from a year-ago.

It said the Russian government had set microbiological testing requirements, including some zero tolerance standards, that were tough for exporters and producers to meet.

"These standards are not in keeping with international scientific standards," the group said in a statement.

Smithfield Chief Executive Larry Pope told analysts during a conference call that the Russian market was "closing as we speak" to U.S. pork.

Russia, has had several trade rows with Washington over meat and poultry in recent years.

HOG FUTURES REBOUND TO CLOSE HIGHER

CME February hog futures LHG0 ended 0.350 cent higher at 65.425 cents per lb after dropping to a low of 63.850 cents, supported by the strength in cash market.

Smithfield shares fell 3.1 percent to $16.33 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Russia's latest ban applies to Smithfield slaughterhouses in Monmouth, Illinois, and Clinton, North Carolina; the Pork King Packing plant in Marengo, Illinois and Hatfield Quality Meats in Hatfield, Pennsylvania.

U.S. economist Steve Meyer, president of consultancy Paragon Economics in Des Moines, Iowa, said Russia was not in a position to completely halt pork imports from the United States over a long period.

"It will be tough because of the spread of African swine fever in its herd and there are no other suppliers other than Brazil," he said. "Food has played an important role in several revolutions there, so I don't think they will do it."

(Reporting by Aleksandars Budrys in Moscow, K.T. Arasu, Bob Burgdorfer and Jerry Bieszk in Chicago, Roberta Rampton and Christopher Doering in Washington; Writing by K.T. Arasu; Editing by Robin Paxton and David Gregorio)