January 15, 2007

US cattle group concerned about USDA disease designation

R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America is concerned about US cattle herd safety in the wake of a proposed US Department of Agriculture designation of a sub-region of Argentina as free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and rinderpest, communications director Shae Dodson said Friday (Jan 12).

The pending Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service change (APHIS)--published in the Jan 5 Federal Register--would declare a portion of Argentina known as the Patagonia South region free of the two diseases. It would be the first time the agency has recognised the disease-free status of a sub-region of a country, allowing fresh and frozen meat from the region to be exported to the US.

"The proposed rule would set an important precedent in the regulation of US meat imports, and may open the door to the certification of additional regions within countries--before those countries have achieved disease-free status at a national level," Doug Zalesky, R-CALF USA's International Trade Committee chairman, said in a statement.

Officials at the largest US cattle trade group, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), "will have to look at the details of the (APHIS) risk assessment, and they haven't had a chance to do that yet," said director of trade media, Joe Schuele. Comments aren't due at APHIS until Mar 6, giving NCBA members time to discuss it at the group's annual convention in early February.

Last diagnosed in the US in 1929, FMD is an acute, contagious, feverish, but usually not fatal, disease that afflicts cattle, hogs, sheep, and other cloven-hoofed animals.

Rinderpest, sometimes called cattle plague, is an acute, often fatal, contagious viral disease, chiefly in cattle, characterised by ulceration of the digestive tract resulting in diarrhoea. Rinderpest also affects sheep and is characterised by high fever, diarrhoea and lesions of the skin and mucus membranes.

Zalesky previously has testified before the US International Trade Commission, voicing the group's opposition to a potential increase in beef imports if countries are able to achieve US disease-status recognition by subdividing, the release said. This is especially true if Free Trade Agreement rules fail to include adequate safeguards accounting for such a possibility.

Zalesky also is concerned that USDA's recognition of an FMD-free zone in Argentina could open the door for other South American and Central American nations looking to export beef to the US.