August 9, 2010

Egypt has begun importing Indian meat again after a five-month ban due to reports that Indian meat contained the sarcocystis worm, which has been known to infect cattle.

According to Egyptian Ambassador to India Mohamed Higazy, the Egyptian veterinary commission inspects all Egypt-bound cattle and frozen meat in India before it is exported to Egypt to ensure it is free of disease.

An Indian government official said that "certain groups" were behind the spate of recent rumors about tainted Indian meat in hopes of driving down global meat prices.

He went on to stress that the Indian government made sure all locally-produced meat was tested before being exported, noting that international health organisations did not even consider the sarcocystis worm an epidemic per se.

According to Egyptian meat importer Alaa Radwan, local retail meat prices will be reduced during the Islamic month of Ramadan - which will begin next week - following requests to this effect by the Ministry of Agriculture.