August 8, 2007

 

EU wants British meat ban limit; sees no ease on non-EU quotas

 

 

The European Union hopes to quickly restrict its ban on imports of British livestock, meat and dairy products to the areas immediately affected by a recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, the European Commission said Tuesday (August 7).

 

Meanwhile, the EU has no plans to lift existing bans or increase quotas on livestock, meat and dairy product exports from non-EU producers such as Argentina and Brazil, said commission spokesman Philip Tod.

 

The ban on British livestock and animal produce was imposed Monday at the request of UK officials, the commission said, adding such EU bans on livestock and produce are typically limited to the region of the outbreak.

 

"Our aim is to regionalize the restrictions as soon as possible" and "as soon as it's fully safe to do so", Tod said.

 

EU animal health experts will meet in Brussels Wednesday to review response measures to the outbreak, Tod said.

 

While the countrywide ban persists, however, Brussels has no intention of easing existing limits on livestock, meat or produce imports from non-EU countries such as Brazil or Argentina, Tod said.

 

The EU has banned beef from the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Parana and Sao Paulo since an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in October 2005.

 

"There are no plans to change the quotas or bans to other countries," Tod said.

 

According to UK officials, the highly contagious virus was discovered in two different herds of cattle in farms southwest of London. The disease afflicts cloven-hoofed animals including cows, sheep, pigs and goats, but rarely infects human beings. There is no known danger from eating meat from animals infected with foot-and-mouth disease.

 

The outbreaks follow a 2001 outbreak, also in the UK, which saw 6 million animals killed, including 4.9 million sheep, 700,000 cattle and 400,000 pigs. Including losses in tourism, that outbreak cost the UK economy more than GBP8 billion.