031031 USDA: Cattle Free of Foot-And-MouthOctober 14, 2003Washington — The Agriculture Department says final tests confirm that cattle held at the Mexican border do not have foot-and-mouth disease. Department spokesman Julie Quick said final results came back late Saturday. Mexico has yet to open the border to livestock trade. The border was closed Friday morning after U.S. officials quarantined a herd of 40 cows in Nogales, Ariz. Agriculture Department officials noted that the animals did not have a fever, a key sign of the contagious disease, and said Mexico was premature in shutting down livestock trade. Usually, countries do not halt trade until they have gotten back test results. A foot-and-mouth outbreak could devastate the $100 billion U.S. livestock industry, said Andrew Wolf, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets in Richmond, Va. An outbreak in Britain in 2001 led to the destruction of a 10 th of the nation’s livestock and crippled rural businesses and tourism. The outbreak affected 2,000 farms. The government paid out $1.7 billion in compensation. Since then, the country has been declared free of the disease. The United States last year exported $4.7 billion in beef and pork, according to the Meat Export Federation. Mexico was the largest buyer of U.S. beef products by volume, purchasing about 350,000 metric tons from U.S. producers worth $854 million. It also purchased 218,000 tons of U.S. pork, second to Japan, worth about $252 million, the Denver-based trade group said on its Web site, citing USDA figures. Foot-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed animals like pigs and cattle. It causes sores, blisters and fever. It is deadly for livestock, but harmless for humans and poultry, even if they eat infected meat. Quick said other test results are pending. Scientists at a foreign animal disease laboratory in Plum Island, N. Y., are checking to see whether the animals have vesicular stomatitis and blue tongue. However, those illness also come with fever.
E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com |
