Belarus banned pork imports from Russia to protect consumers from African swine fever, a spokeswoman for the country’s Agriculture Ministry said Wednesday.
“Due to the toughening of the epizootic situation with African swine fever in Russia, beginning Nov. 4 temporary limitations on pork imports from Russia to the territory of Belarus are introduced,” said Daria Kozlovskaya, a spokesperson for the Agriculture and food ministry.
The current outbreak of the virus was registered in March 2007 in the Krasnodar region and thousands of pigs were slaughtered and burned in an attempt to keep the disease from spreading.
The virus has been circulating in the Caucasus region for a while, and originally came to the Russian territory from Georgia, Rostov region Agriculture Minister Igor Kuznetsov said Monday.