PRAIA -- The tiny Atlantic Ocean island nation of Cape Verde has announced a ban on imports of poultry from Portugal, press reports on Friday quoted the government as saying.

The ban was announced after the Agriculture Ministry in Portugal, Cape Verde's former colonial ruler, said Monday it had detected traces of nitrofuran, an antibiotic that the EU had banned in 1994, in chickens, turkeys and quail at 43 Portuguese farms.

Cape Verde government spokesman Arnaldo Andrade said the move had been taken in the interest of public health. He did not say when the ban would come into effect.

Poultry imports to Cape Verde, a tiny, volcanic archipelago of 10 islands lying some 500 kilometers (300 miles) off the coast of Senegal, climbed from 193 tons in 1998 to 2,400 tons last year.

Local farmers have long complained about imported poultry, which they have criticized as being of inferior quality to domestically reared fowl and are unfair competition. Agriculture Ministry hygiene experts have reassured Cape Verdians that domestically reared chicken presents no danger to consumers. (AFP)