010509 USDA Close to Lifting Ban on EU Meat Imports

Washington - The U.S. Agriculture Department could decide to relax its ban on meat imports from the European Union as early as next week, instead restricting shipments only from countries with the highly contagious foot-and- mouth disease.

Alfonso Torres, deputy administrator of the U.S. Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said EU veterinarians have until the end of this week to provide information requested by the United States on the foot-and-mouth situation in Europe.

“We're still at a window for the European Union to provide information to us,” Torres said. “Once we have all the information, we will analyze the information...and then we'll go to the decision making.”

EU officials have intensified efforts recently urging the Bush administration to regionalize its ban since the number of new outbreaks of foot- and-mouth disease has steadily declined in the past few weeks.

Belgium Farm Minister Jaak Gabriels said after meeting with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman that the U.S. was close to making a decision on its ban.

Veneman “is waiting on information from the European Commission,” Gabriels said. “Based on this information, she will take measures immediately. She is ready to do it.”

USDA officials said they were receiving regular updates on EU's efforts to eradicate the disease and were continuously reviewing whether to revise the EU- wide import ban based on the information.

“We are constantly reviewing the situation,” USDA spokesman Kevin Herglotz said. “But in terms of a time frame, we don't have one.”

The U.S. on March 13 banned all EU animals and raw meat products after foot- and-mouth disease jumped from Britain to France. The financially devastating disease has since spread to the Netherlands and Ireland, but has not affected the 11 other EU member nations.

The disease cripples pigs, cattle, sheep and goats for months, and sharply reduces milk and meat production. The virus, which rarely endangers humans, is easily spread by shoes, farm equipment and even the wind.

The U.S. ban covers annual EU imports worth $278 million, according to USDA estimates.

Britain, the epicenter of the outbreak, said new cases of the disease were slowing. More than 1,500 sites in the United Kingdom have suffered outbreaks since the first confirmed case in late February.

The U.S. has been free of the disease since 1929.

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