March 23, 2007

Three Mercosur countries agree on FMD control 
 

Three of the MERCOSUR (Spanish: Mercado Comun del Sur, Portuguese: Mercado Comum do Sul) or the Southern Common Market countries have agreed to a 15 kilometre zone of intensive surveillance for foot-and-mouth-disease (FMD) along with their common borders under the incentive of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

The countries include Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

The agreement announced on March 9 is the result of a joint evaluation mission of OIE's FMD experts and the OIE Reference Laboratory for FMD for the Americas (the Pan American Centre for Foot & Mouth Disease, or PANAFTOSA) to Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay in December 2006.

The mission concluded that FMD virus is still present along the shared borders of the three countries.

The OIE has proposed that the three countries shall commit to apply intensive sanitary vigilance in the zone, which encompasses a small area along their shared borders. The OIE has also required identification, control and vaccination of all animals be applied in the defined zone.

OIE director Dr Bernard Vallat said the agency will closely follow the application of the joint agreement to completely eradicate the disease in the subregion and for other countries to move quickly toward regional approach policies.

In the agreement the three countries will sacrifice a small portion of their territory that will not, at present, be included within the areas to be officially declared free with vaccination from FMD by OIE. This regional approach will help resolve the unstable sanitary situation along their shared borders and will also ensure the continuation of trade activities, even in the case of outbreaks in the intensive surveillance zone.