USDA Reassures Lawmakers On Fear Of Argentina Cattle Disease
5:31 PM, March 25, 2008
By Bill Tomson
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Agriculture Online
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--John Clifford, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
chief veterinarian, met with lawmakers Tuesday to try to calm concerns over the
USDA's plan to partially lift a ban on meat imports from Argentina, a country
that has a history of trouble with livestock disease.
The possibility of importing the highly contagious foot-and-mouth livestock
disease is the primary fear expressed by U.S. lawmakers and cattle ranchers,
but Clifford told Dow Jones Newswires that the USDA believes there is no need
for concern.
The USDA is planning only to resume imports from the southern Patagonia
region of Argentina, which produces and exports mainly lamb and goat meat,
Clifford said.
"Patagonia hasn't had a case of foot-and-mouth disease since something like
1976," he said.
Jess Peterson, a spokesman for the U.S. Cattlemen's Association, said the
group doesn't trust Argentina to prevent ranchers from taking cattle from
infected regions to Patagonia and shipping beef from there to the U.S.
Foot-and-mouth disease, an extremely contagious disease in ruminant animals
that has never been found to be a danger to humans, was detected in northern
Argentina as recently as February 2006, Clifford said.
But he also said Argentina has demonstrated to the U.S. "very strict movement
controls." Slaughter facilities in Patagonia, said Clifford, wouldn't be able
to process livestock from other regions.
Peterson said he wasn't reassured. He said he doesn't believe "Argentina can
be trusted to enforce this imaginary zone."
-By Bill Tomson, Dow Jones Newswires
agriculture.com
