The Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry has reinforced veterinary control at the Belarusian-Polish border due to new outbreaks of bird flu in Poland, Deputy Agriculture and Food Minister Mikhail Savelyev told BelTA. In his words, on December 3 Belarus banned import of live poultry, poultry meat and poultry meat products from Poland. Belarusian poultry factories have been prohibited to import young breeders from Poland. The poultry factories used to import around 15 million young breeders from Poland. Belarus now seeks other countries unharmed by bird flu, noted Mikhail Savelyev. He said, young breeders will be bought in Germany. In the future Belarusian poultry factories will be supplied with young breeders by a breeding centre built in the Stolbtsy region. All security measures have been taken in Belarus in line with a comprehensive programme aimed at counteracting bird flu. Veterinary and sanitary services, healthcare institutions and the police are involved in the efforts. “We are arranging training sessions to get manufacturers prepared for possible pockets of infection. It helps companies keep the sanitary and veterinary procedures,” explained the Deputy Minister. Belarusian veterinary services examine every vehicle in transit from Poland. Any meat products, especially poultry meat ones, are destroyed to prevent the spread of bird flu in Belarus. Bird flu is mainly carried by wild birds, which is why habitats and wintering sites of wild migrating birds are constantly monitored. Poultry factories use restricted access procedures. Over the last three years domestic poultry in the vicinity of three kilometres from poultry factories and water ponds has been vaccinated. In August 2007 Belarus banned import of meat products in baggage from countries affected by dangerous infection diseases. For 20 years Belarus has stayed safe with regard to dangerous infection diseases. In particular, the International Office of Epizootics has issued a safe foot-and-mouth disease certificate to the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry. The Ministry will get more certificates soon.