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Belarus bans pork imports from Russia's Smolensk province

 

The Belarusian agriculture ministry's Department for Veterinary and Food Control has introduced a temporary ban on imports of pork and live hogs from Russia's Smolensk province where cases of African swine fever were reported earlier this month.

Wild boar meat, hog feeds and used hog farm and slaughterhouse equipment are also subject to the import ban, said the department on Friday.

The Smolensk province borders on Belarus.

Earlier this week, Belarus banned imports of live hogs and pork from Russia's Rostov, Moscow and Volgograd provinces over outbreaks of the highly contagious virus in the areas.

Cases of the virus were found in the Hrodna and Vitsyebsk regions earlier this summer, prompting Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine to ban pork imports from Belarus. // BelaPAN