MINSK/MOSCOW – Belarus has removed a ban on poultry supplies from the United States, according to a corresponding decision published on the website of the veterinary and food control department of the Belarusian Food and Agriculture Ministry.
Belarus banned imports of poultry from the United States in June 2015. At the time, according to information from the International Epizootic Bureau, there were highly pathogenic cases of the H5 group registered in 16 US states.
At the same time, Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) has not yet received an official notification about the decision, but promises to strengthen checks of poultry from Belarus.
“We will be forced to strengthen inspection measures of poultry products which come from Belarus in order to be sure that they are not supplying us American poultry under the guise of Belarusian,” Alexei Alexeyenko, an official representative of the ministry, told Interfax.
Supplies of US poultry to Russia were banned under a Russian food embargo which was introduced on August 7, 2014.
