Minister of State for Food Chain Supervision and Agricultural Administration Endre Kardeván met with the Chief Veterinary Officers of Belarus and Kazakhstan early this week to discuss the recommencement of cattle exports and the training of students and veterinarians from Kazakhstan.

The Hungarian Chief Veterinarian's delegation was received in Astana, Kazakhstan by Deputy Minister Gulmira Sultanbaevna and Chief Veterinarian Rustem Kurmanov. The central topics of the meeting were the Schmallenberg virus and the issue of Hungarian cattle exports.

No efficient treatment of this virus has yet been developed and no European Union member state may currently export livestock to Kazakhstan. Endre Kardeván guaranteed that Hungary is virus-free and stated that the Hungarian authorities are prepared to conduct the necessary tests and send Kazakhstan the results within as little as ten days. In addition, Hungary will fund the university education of five Kazakh veterinary students in Hungary and the post-gradual training of twenty veterinarians and researchers, including expenses relating to them taking part in studies in the field.

In Minsk, where the Hungarian delegation was received by Deputy Minister for Animal Husbandry and Animal Health Igor Brilo and Chief Veterinary Officer Yury Pivovarchik, the main topic of bilateral talks was the recommencement of cattle exports. The Belarus party promised that if the Hungarian authorities provided a written guarantee that only healthy animals would be exported, then the export of live cattle to Belarus may begin once again. The parties agreed to implement a double sampling procedure, according to which samples taken from Hungarian livestock by Hungarian and Belarusian veterinarians in Hungary will be examined independently by both countries until confidence is restored. The Chief Veterinary Officer of Belarus confirmed that there are no qualitative issues with regard to Hungarian breeding stock.

Also discussed at the meeting was the visit to Budapest in early November of the Eurasian Economic Community's Minister for Industry and Agrarian Affairs Sergei Sergeevich Sidorsky. It was then that the Hungarian party asked Minister Sidorsky to ensure that Hungarian export products could enter the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus using a uniform and accelerated procedure.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)