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MINSK, 7 April (BelTA) – Veterinary experts of Belarus and Russia plan to discuss the results of mutual inspections of meat processing enterprises and the possibility of resuming the supply of pork to Russia next week, BelTA learned from Vasily Pivovar, Deputy Agriculture and Food Minister of Belarus, Director of the Veterinary and Food Oversight Department of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry.

In the next few days Belarusian experts will finish processing the information they received during the inspections of the Russian enterprises. "After that we will discuss the results with our colleagues from Russia, will compare the notes and take a decision. Most likely, this will happen next week,” Vasily Pivovar said.

He recalled that the Belarusian specialists visited three meat-processing enterprises in the Russian Federation, two in Belgorod Oblast and one in Tver Oblast. Rosselkhoznadzor experts inspected Agrokombinat Snov, Agrokombinat Belovezhsky. "We are ready to host our Russian colleagues in Grodno, Skidel, Gomel and Borisov,” Vasily Pivovar noted.

As was reported, after a joint session of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry and the Russian Agriculture Ministry in Minsk on 17 March, the heads of the ministries announced that the agreement on the deliveries of Belarusian pork to Russia may be reached shortly. The parties agreed on mutual inspections of a number of enterprises. Belarus proposed to inspect first Agrokombinat Snov, Agrokombinat Belovezhsky, and Bereza Meat-Packing Plant. On 21 March Vasily Pivovar reported that Rosselkhoznadzor allowed the Bereza Meat-Packing Plant to resume deliveries to Russia.

In autumn 2014 Belarus imposed temporary restrictions on the shipments of the pork that did not undergo high-temperature processing to Russia. The reason was that specialists of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia (Rosselkhoznadzor) allegedly discovered the ASF virus gene in the products of some Belarusian enterprises. Belarus also imposed bans on pork imports from the Russian regions which reported the ASF outbreaks.

African swine fever (Montgomery's disease) is a contagious viral disease that affects domestic swine and wild hogs alike. The disease is transmitted via direct contact between healthy and diseased animals, via products made of pork, by ticks and mechanically (by transportation means, during the transportation of animals). No vaccine is available. If infected, nearly the entire livestock of the diseased swine dies out. The disease does not affect humans.