World meat industry news

To import breeding material - farm animals, as well as semen and embryos obtained from them - a special conclusion and results of molecular genetic examination will be required. The State Duma adopted this law in the second and immediately third, final reading at a plenary session on Thursday, December 14. The law will come into force on September 1, 2024, with the exception of one provision that will come into effect later, on March 1, 2026.

“The main goal of the law is to ensure that breeding products are healthy,” commented Vladimir Kashin, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues, one of the authors of the document, during the meeting.

The new law establishes requirements for the import of breeding animals, their semen and embryos from foreign countries (not members of the EAEU). Thus, for import, a conclusion will be required that the animals and the semen or embryos obtained from them belong to breeding products. The form and procedure for issuing such a conclusion will be determined by the Ministry of Agriculture. A conclusion will be issued for each batch of imported breeding products.

Importing breeding stock will require the animals to have identification numbers, the law states.

In addition, imported breeding animals, semen and embryos obtained from them must have a breeding certificate. In addition, livestock and breeding material should not be carriers of genetic diseases. To do this, it will be necessary to conduct molecular genetic testing in accredited laboratories.

Expert opinion

Industry experts agree that requirements for the import of imported breeding stock, semen and embryos need to be tightened. The quality of imported breeding products raises doubts among Russian experts. Less than 2% of the imported semen that was brought to Russia in 2022 was obtained from good sires, Ivan Yanchukov, General Director of Moskovskoe JSC, said in an interview with Veterinary and Life. “Of more than 6 million doses of semen that were imported in 2022, less than 2% are from really good world-class bulls,” said Ivan Yanchukov.

According to Sergei Mymrin, General Director of Uralplemcenter JSC, “genetic garbage” is being imported into Russia. “This is what we are talking about: out of 180 thousand doses of imported semen delivered to the Sverdlovsk region, less than 3% is the semen of high-quality bulls and bulls from the top 100 of the Association of Holstein Cattle Producers. Everything else is imported sperm products at a cost of 1 to 2 dollars. In the American and European markets, the cost of one sperm dose of high-quality bulls with good productive performance reaches $200 or more,” said the speaker.

According to Sergei Mymrin, Russian artificial insemination stations conduct much more research on their products than foreign producers. “We are now in unequal conditions with importers of biological material,” the speaker emphasized. The expert claims that imported breeding material is imported into Russia almost uncontrollably. “Nobody checks the Dewar flask that is brought to us from abroad (a vessel designed for long-term storage of substances at high or low temperatures. - ViZh). Products contained in liquid nitrogen are not subject to inspection and are not subject to removal from the vessel to check for qualitative and quantitative indicators. This vessel is weighed, its mass is determined and a declaration is filled out based on this,” the expert explained.

“Russian internal GOST for breeding material is more stringent,” noted Maxim Maksimchuk, General Director of JSC “Head Center for the Reproduction of Farm Animals” (JSC “GCV”). The expert gave an example: a number of animal diseases are critical for the domestic market and exclude the use of products, while in a number of foreign countries the same diseases do not become an obstacle to the use and, consequently, the import of breeding products.

“There is such a thing as the 100 best bulls in the world. Do you really think that these 100 best bulls are supplied to Russia? No. Only the top 2% of bulls come to us. And everything else is culling. In Soviet standards there were 3 categories - deteriorators, neutrals and improvers. The category of deteriorators was subject to disposal. And now we import such a product. A very low percentage of worthy animals come from abroad to our market,” the interlocutor of “ViZh” said.