May 8, 2007

Brazil to vaccinate 126 million cattle for FMD

Brazil's agriculture ministry said it will vaccinate 126 million cattle on Brazilian cattle farms for the next four weeks as a move to combat its prolonged battle with foot-and-mouth-disease (FMD).

The vaccination campaign is part of an ongoing national effort to immunise the roughly 200 million bovine heads in the country against the highly contagious disease which has led to numerous embargoes by beef importers.

The last FMD case was reported in Mato Grosso do Sul and Parana in October 2005, but the virus has persisted in calves in regions in Mato Grosso do Sul where the disease has first occurred.

Brazilian Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes told ranchers in Minas Gerais state last week that the government would provide necessary resources to fight the disease. 

Brazil's major beef importers European Union and Russia have banned beef from Mato Grosso do Sul Parana and Sao Paulo.

Some 54 nations have maintained full or partial bans on Brazilian beef as a result of the 2005 outbreak.

Brazil's animal health authorities are expecting the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health to declare Sao Paulo and Parana free of foot-and-mouth disease. The declaration will also prompt embargoing nations to remove the bans.

Brazil's ranching states are roughly half the size of the South American continent which enables beef exporters to work around export bans by shipping meat from states permitted to export. The country has exported 1.8 million metric tonnes of fresh beef, carcass equivalent weight, in 2006, compared with 1.6 million tonnes in 2005, according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association, or Abiec.

Brazil shipped 498,698 tonnes of fresh beef from January to March 2007, according to Abiec.