December 8, 2005

 

Brazil's Parana state to protest against FMD case

 

 

Parana government officials are meeting in Parana's capital city Wednesday to protest the Agriculture Ministry's confirmation that the state has FMD among some of its herd.

 

The Agriculture Ministry officially announced news about FMD in Parana on Tuesday evening.

 

Parana officials are discussing measures to legally protest the federal government's decision to label Parana a state infected by FMD, according to a press statement by the state's Secretary of Agriculture.

 

"We are in a battle right now," Orlando Pessuti, Lieutenant Governor of Parana, said in the statement. "After all these exams, every single report has shown that there is no FMD in these animals. We defend the position that Parana is free of FMD."

 

Pessuti said the state would file an injunction against the Agriculture Ministry if they do not change their position.

 

Various meetings took place Tuesday night in Brasilia with congressional leaders from other states discussing the federal government's interpretation of the lab results.

 

"We are going to contest the technicalities used in defining Parana as infected by FMD," Newtonne Pohl Ribas, Parana's Secretary of Agriculture, told Dow Jones Newswires.

 

The Rural Society of North Parana, where the cattle had been confirmed to have the virus, said that roughly 34 ranchers were participating in the meeting in Parana's capital Wednesday morning.

 

"We are following the rules of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)," said Jamil Gomes de Souza, animal disease control coordinator at the Department of Animal Health at the Agriculture Ministry. He told Dow Jones Newswires that blood tests of roughly 22 bovines showed that the foot-and-mouth virus had been active in the animals' bloodstream, but that the cattle did not have FMD at this time.

 

"They could easily get it in the future because they have had the virus in the past. The OIE rules are clear, if you have cattle that are carriers of the virus, they have to be sacrificed or at least held in solitary confinement for 18 months," de Souza said.

 

According to de Souza, over 8,000 cattle will likely need to be slaughtered in Parana.

 

The cattle were purchased from Eldorado in Mato Grosso do Sul state, where the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was reported on Oct 10. Since then, over two dozen ranches in Mato Grosso do Sul had cattle with the disease.

 

De Souza said that Parana cattle did not have the pronounced symptoms seen in the Mato Grosso do Sul cattle.