June 18, 2004

Brazil Finds Foot-and-Mouth Disease In Para State
 

Brazil, the world's second largest beef producer, found cattle infected with foot-and-mouth disease in the Northern state of Para. This is the first outbreak of the disease in three years that has limited the country's meat exports.

Three infected head of cattle were found in the municipality of Monte Alegre, the Agriculture Ministry's press office in Brasilia said. Brazil last reported a foot-and-mouth infection in August 2001 in Maranhao state, the ministry said.

Brazil's previous foot-and-mouth outbreaks may have kept the country from filling a gap in beef exports to Japan, Korea and other Asian nations after mad cow disease was found in the U.S. and Canada last year. Brazil was expected to become the world's largest beef exporter, after U.S. and Canadian beef sales were closed to most Asian markets, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in April.

Brazil cannot export to U.S. because of foot-and-mouth restrictions, said Eric Nichols, an official at the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The current ban has been under review for the last two years with no timetable for a decision, he said.

The bulk of Brazil's exports of fresh and frozen beef go to nations in the European Union, where foot-and-mouth standards are lower than in the U.S., and which does not allow Brazilian chilled or frozen exports.

Brazil's beef production has risen 25 percent in the past five years and is expected to reach a record 7.7 million tons in 2004 because improved genetics, better management, and higher profitability, the department said.

Foot-and-mouth disease is an acute, highly contagious degenerative viral disease of cattle characterized by fever and the eruption of vesicles around the mouth and hooves. It is usually not fatal. Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is an infectious degenerative brain disease occurring in cattle.