World meat industry news

Starting in September of this year, Russia will establish more stringent requirements for the import of live breeding animals, as well as their semen and embryos, reports Veterinary Science and Life.

They will be regulated by the new Government Law No. 660 of December 25 last year. It was prepared at the end of last year. An exception will be paragraph 3 of Article 1, which will come into force in March 2026. It is clarified that the norms specified in the document for the import of these products and livestock will be applied to foreign countries that are not members of the EAEU. The criteria by which these products and live animals will be classified as breeding animals are determined by the Ministry of Agriculture. Among them is the presence of a breeding certificate.

The new rules also define a more detailed list of requirements for the import itself. First of all, a special conclusion will be required that the cattle, semen and embryo are breeding. It will also be issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, and both legal entities and individual entrepreneurs purchasing breeding material can receive it. This document must accompany each batch of imported breeding products. It also specifies what information it should contain. This is the type of breeding material, and for live cattle - gender, age and name of the breed or cross. We also need the results of a molecular genetic examination of livestock or breeding products so that dangerous genetic diseases are not brought into the country with them. Other necessary data is a positive genomic forecast of breeding value for proteins, fats and milk yield (with confirmation of at least 70 percent) or a positive assessment of the quality of the offspring, as well as positive indicators of health, fertility and conformation. In addition, the document contains a list of genetic diseases for which certain breeds of animals will need to be tested.