The legal and regulatory framework in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states ensures the safety of animal products, but at the same time some aspects need to be improved, in particular the regulation of the use of feed additives and their compositions. Veterinary services should also be strengthened. This was the opinion of experts, representatives of federal agencies and business communities at the session ‘Veterinary Health as a Guarantor of Food Security’, held within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Forum.
An extensive legal framework has been established in the customs territory of the EAEU
“[The regulatory framework, – Ed.] is now established, it covers a huge number of documents that not only list the goods subject to veterinary control and general uniform requirements for goods, but they define the requirements for the items subject to veterinary control. Today, the approaches to veterinary control are defined within the framework of the regulation on uniform procedures. <...> Mechanisms to ensure the safety of goods imported from third countries and transported among member states are regulated,” Viktor Nazarenko, Member of the Board, Minister in Charge of Technical Regulation, Eurasian Economic Commission.
“Dozens of new veterinary regulations have been issued. Thanks to this set of measures and documents, including at supranational level, the safety of products of animal origin is ensured in EAEU countries,” Maksim Sinelnikov, Deputy Head, National Association of Suppliers, Producers and Consumers of Meat and Meat Products.
Russia maintains a positive trend in the production of animal source goods
“As a result of the measures taken, Russia has been declared free of ovine rinderpest, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and is also free of foot-and-mouth disease for the four zones that include most of the country’s region,” Tatiana Balagula, Head of the Department of State Veterinary Supervision, Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor).
“Despite constant epizootic threats, Russia has managed to maintain a positive trend in animal production for a number of years. And even after a difficult year in 2021 with outbreaks of ASF [African swine fever virus, – Ed.] and avian influenza causing serious damage to livestock, Russia showed record production and export volumes in 2022,” Maksim Sinelnikov, Deputy Head, National Association of Suppliers, Producers and Consumers of Meat and Meat Products.
“Russia is becoming the world’s largest agricultural producer and exporter. <...> Monitoring the quality of product safety is simply becoming impossible without the use of digital technology,” Julia Melano, Advisor to the Head, Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor).
Issues of veterinary welfare in the customs territory of the EAEU remain unresolved
“As for EAEU technical regulations on the safety of feed and additives, currently there are no requirements for the circulation of feed and additives in the EAEU. There are no unified approaches to establishing safety requirements, and there are no standards for antibiotics in feed. This leads to the detection of banned harmful substances, including antibiotics, in livestock products. <...> Active work is now underway to review the draft regulations at the expert level, and we would like to see this document adopted sooner rather than later,” Lyudmila Manitskaya, Chairman of the Board – Director, Dairy Union of Russia.
“There is little or no liability under Russian law for the use of antibacterial drugs, particularly pharmacological substances,” Sergey Engashev, General Director, Research and Development Center ‘Agrovetzashchita’.
“The causative agents of more than 60% of human diseases are of animal origin, with five previously unknown human diseases <...> being diagnosed every year. Humanity loses about 20% of its livestock production each year to infectious diseases,” Alexander Panin, Advisor, All-Russian State Center for Quality and Standardization of Medicines for Animals and Feed.
“On the work currently being done by the World Organisation [for Animal Health, – Ed.] to develop recommendations for vaccines against African swine fever. <...> The objective is not to protect animals from being killed – unfortunately, there is currently no hope that the use of a vaccine will protect animals from the disease,” Denis Kolbasov, Director, Federal Research Center for Virology and Microbiology; Professor, Russian Academy of Sciences.
The veterinary services of EAEU member states should be strengthened, and the use of high-quality medicines and feed additives should be cultivated
“We are now in the process of finalizing the Horriot system for tracking and identifying animals. This will make the system for controlling the movement of animals and products as complete as possible. This will be both within the country and across the border. That is, we will have virtually complete control over all possible routes of movement of infectious diseases and will be able to cut off the channels of illegal and unsafe products in circulation. <...> We already have full integration with our colleagues from Belarus. We, for our part, are ready for full integration with other information systems of other countries, if our colleagues have any,” Tatiana Balagula, Head of the Department of State Veterinary Supervision, Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor).
“The drafting of uniform regulations on the control of foot-and-mouth disease is being completed. And we consider it necessary to continue work on similar projects in relation to the most economically and socially significant animal diseases, taking into account the emerging epizootic situation in the territory of the Union. This relates primarily to the situation with African swine fever and highly pathogenic avian influenza. <...> The regulatory framework for veterinary measures continues to improve, and a number of documents are currently in the works, relating to feed additives, other means of protection,” Viktor Nazarenko, Member of the Board, Minister in Charge of Technical Regulation, Eurasian Economic Commission.
“We are convinced that the EAEU member states should work continuously to strengthen their veterinary services. The stronger our veterinary services are, the lower the barriers to trade will be,” Maksim Sinelnikov, Deputy Head, National Association of Suppliers, Producers and Consumers of Meat and Meat Products.
“In terms of harmonised approaches, there should probably be more discussion, including that on staff preparedness. We need more sharing of experience among colleagues in different countries,” Maria Novikova, Director, Department of Veterinary Science, Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.
