"Taking into account the current situation, we have instructed the agencies eligible for issuing certificates for the export of pork products to the Russian Federation to temporarily suspend this activity until the circumstances are clarified," Vasily Pivovar, Director of the Veterinary and Food Oversight Department of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry, according to the BelTA news agency.

He noted that the restrictions apply only to the pork products that have not been heat-treated (at the temperature of 72°C and higher inside the product for 30 minutes).

In early October 2014 Russia temporarily suspended the import of products of nine Belarusian meat processing plants in which the genome of the African swine fever (ASF) virus had been detected.

The ASF viral genome represents a kind of a trace of the disease and poses no threat to human health.