By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 23 2001 (IPS)

A leading expert on foreign trade recommended Thursday that Argentina return to vaccination of all cattle against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which was suspended in 1999.

Alberto de las Carreras, a former secretary of foreign trade and a member of the Chamber of Exporters, told IPS that another necessary step would be to negotiate with markets abroad, to explain that the vaccination was merely a preventive measure, and to urge them not to suspend imports of Argentine beef.

At the time vaccination was suspended in 1999, De las Carreras believed the decision was premature, even though it opened up new markets for Argentina by making the country eligible for the Paris- based International Office of Epizootics (OIE) list of countries “free of FMD without vaccination,” to which it was added in May 2000.

Authorities in Argentina insist that the country’s cattle remain free of FMD. Nevertheless, they decided to begin vaccinating again in 12 of the country’s 23 provinces due to growing suspicion of outbreaks of the disease, and rumours of clandestine inoculation efforts in several regions.

The new worries about FMD, a problem that appeared to be a thing of the past in this Southern Cone country, have dampened hopes that beef exports would rise once the current panic triggered by the reappearance of mad cow disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) had blown over.

Argentina is the world’s fourth biggest exporter of beef, following Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Brazil, which has FMD under control in its southern region, announced Wednesday that it would temporarily stop importing cattle and some beef products from Argentina – a decision that according to De las Carreras had more to do with discrediting a major competitor than with safeguarding its own livestock.

The decision to vaccinate 16 percent of the country’s cattle starting in March led the OIE to rescind the certification of “FMD-free without vaccination” from those regions where vaccination will be reintroduced: along Argentina’s northern border with Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay, and in leading livestock- producing provinces, explained OIE director-general Bernard Vallat.

Nevertheless, the entire country is facing the risk of being downgraded to “FMD-free with vaccination” status, just a year after it was upgraded.

Wednesday’s announcement of the decision to cut off Argentine sales of cattle, beef on bone and offal to Brazil triggered a new conflict between the two trading partners, whose relations are already strained over disputes involving dairy products, rice, sugar, steel and footwear.

The Brazilian government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso also decided to step up animal health controls on the border between Argentina and Brazil, the biggest members of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc, which is also made up of Paraguay and Uruguay.

The measure will mean losses for Argentina of just over a million dollars, out of total beef sales to Brazil of 32 million dollars.

Meanwhile, fears have been raised of a ban on imports by the United States and Canada, which together comprise the second- biggest market for Argentine beef, after Germany.

Argentina was upset Wednesday when the Brazilian Agriculture Ministry announced a “ban” on imports of Argentine beef, while its own officials said they had adopted a “preventive self- restriction” on beef exports after authorities from the two countries met in the capital of Brazil.

De las Carreras, author of the book “Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Argentina, a Challenge to Competitiveness”, said “the outlook is getting very complicated.” He added that “perhaps it would be advisable to adopt a contingency plan under which all of the country’s cattle would begin to be vaccinated once again.”

In his view, Argentina was overly hasty in its decision to stop vaccinating before having in place an effective programme of epidemiological controls along its borders.

Although a number of stockbreeders criticised the decision to stop vaccinating back in 1999, they set aside their worries in the face of the prospect of increased sales.

In a questionnaire posted on the Internet site MegaAgro.com (at http//www.megaagro.com-encuesta-encuesta_includes.asp?estado=3),18

7 respondents said FMD existed in Argentina, 80 said it did not, and 110 chose the option “we had better keep our mouths shut.”

FMD, a potentially fatal disease affecting cloven-hooved animals that leads to loss of appetite among livestock, is not transmitted to people who consume the meat of infected animals, but diminishes the quality of meat.

The disease was identified in the mid-19th century, and thanks to the advances of the cold-storage industry, it was brought under control in the late 19th century, because the virus dies in boneless cuts.

In the 1930s, the United States suspended beef purchases from 15 countries due to outbreaks of FMD, and Argentina did not make it back into the U.S. market until 1997, when it was declared FMD- free, although it continued vaccinating for two more years.

FMD, along with the growth of the beef industry in Australia, the United States and New Zealand, led to Argentina’s slide from the world’s biggest exporter of beef in 1971 to its current position as number four.

But in recent years, Argentina has launched an offensive to recover lost ground, naming prominent artists and athletes as “beef ambassadors”, and promoting its pasture-fed beef, which the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recently declared safe from mad cow disease.

Last year, however, just three months after Argentina celebrated its new status as “FMD-free without vaccination,” which paved the way for negotiations for sales to demanding markets like Japan, South Korea and Mexico, an outbreak of FMD was reported on the border with Paraguay.

The outbreak, which was blamed on the lack of adequate border controls, triggered the immediate decision by the United States and Canada to suspend purchases until last December, when they renewed imports.

The Argentine government announced that next week it would send a high-level technical mission to the United States to explain why Argentina had begun to vaccinate again, and to request that imports not be banned.

According to De las Carreras, the best thing to do at this point would be to return to vaccination at a national, instead of regional level, and to try to convince clients to continue importing beef on the understanding that the renewal of inoculation was merely a preventive measure in the face of possible contact with livestock smuggled in from other countries.

He also said the suspension of some beef imports by Brazil had a political, rather than economic, impact.

“Brazil, which competes with Argentina in the production of beef, is trying to push its trading partner out of third country markets, and this crisis is part of that strategy,” said the expert.

Although Brazil’s measure will not produce serious direct damage, it highlights animal health problems that could lead to the loss of more important markets, representing hundreds of millions of dollars which Argentina desperately needs for its balance of payments.

The same thing happened to Brazil when Canada decided on Feb 2 that it would not import Brazilian beef due to a potential risk of mad cow disease.

Canada’s ban led the United States and Mexico, its partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), to automatically follow suit.

Brazilian exporters were much less worried about the loss of sales to Canada, which only amounted to 5.6 million dollars last year, as about exports to the U.S. market, which accounted for sales of 82 million dollars. They also feared a chain reaction in Europe and Asia, given the fast-spreading panic about BSE and its human form, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Stockbreeders also suffered a drop in domestic purchases and prices in Brazil, said Luiz Hafers, president of the Brazilian Rural Society.

But the suspicion raised by Canada that BSE might be present in Brazil should be laid to rest within the next few days, when the Canadian ban is expected to be lifted.

Excerpt: