Agricultural News
TSCRA Calls Import of Beef from Brazil a Huge Risk- Opposes USDA Proposal
Wed, 23 Apr 2014 03:32:28 CDT
The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) submitted comments today in opposition to a recent proposal by the United States Department of Agriculture-Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) that could put the U.S. cattle herd at a greater risk of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
USDA-APHIS has proposed a rule that would allow for the importation of fresh, maturated, deboned beef from a region in Brazil into the United States.
According to TSCRA President Pete Bonds, Brazil has a long history with FMD and lacks strict control measures to properly mitigate the risk of FMD into the United States should certain types of fresh beef be imported.
"Protecting the U.S. cattle industry from a catastrophic foreign animal disease like FMD is a major priority for TSCRA," said Pete Bonds, rancher and TSCRA president. "And although we certainly support free trade with foreign countries that have a proven history of controlling animal diseases, we do not believe Brazil has met, and can consistently guarantee, the standards necessary to keep FMD out of the United States."
Bonds says that many beef producers in Texas and the Southwest remember all too clearly the devastating effects of FMD the last time it was in the United States in 1929.
"Given the extreme level of uncertainty surrounding Brazil's ability to control FMD, and the fact that our national cattle herd is at its lowest since the 1950s, we simply cannot afford to take this large of a risk," Bonds continued.
In addition to the risk analysis USDA-APHIS conducted for the Brazil rule, they also requested public comment on an evaluation that would serve as a decision making tool to determine whether and under what conditions to allow imports of fresh meat and live animals from the Patagonia region of Argentina to the United States.
TSCRA is opposed to both USDA-APHIS risk analyses for Brazil and Argentina based upon third party scientific reviews that acknowledged issues with both risk assessments.
Bonds says that Brazil and Argentina's trend of compliance problems and deficiencies with routine USDA and European Commission food safety audits also present concern. Additionally, APHIS has conducted a number of site visits to verify animal health and disease information; however, the reviews appear to lack transparency since the full results of these site visits have not yet been made public.
"The fact is that neither of these regions can prove they've successfully and continually eradicated FMD," said Bonds. "That's a huge red flag for U.S. cattle producers."
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