Pressure To Withdraw Brazil FMD Regionalisation
US - In light of yesterday’s rediscovery of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in pigs in South Korea, R-CALF USA has sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to urge him to immediately withdraw its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS’) final rule to designate Santa Catarina, Brazil, as free of FMD.
30 November 2010
2 minute read
APHIS’ methodology to declare Santa Catarina, Brazil, free of FMD is precisely the same methodology APHIS used less than a year ago to declare South Korea free of FMD. Additionally, today’s outbreak in South Korea occurred just two months after the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) declared South Korea free of FMD.
“Unlike APHIS, the OIE has no statutory responsibility to protect against the introduction of FMD into the US, and reliance upon OIE guidelines is demonstrably akin to playing Russian roulette with the health and safety of US livestock,” wrote R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who also chairs the group’s animal health committee. “So, too, (is APHIS)…demonstrably incapable of predicting the reoccurrence of FMD in countries where the disease is known to have existed in recent years.”
R-CALF USA also criticizes APHIS’ reliance on its quarantine requirements to mitigate the FMD risk in Brazil, citing a November 2010 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that identified material weaknesses in APHIS’ quarantine procedures. The report states: “According to the report [the OIG report], APHIS officials did not . . . exercise sufficient oversight to ensure import and quarantine requirements were met.”
R-CALF USA states it believes APHIS remains intent upon unnecessarily exposing the US to FMD, “…Based on our experience with APHIS, we believe the agency is doing this for no other reason than to reduce the United States’ more favourable disease status to the less favorable statuses of many of our import/export customers – an action APHIS likely believes will further facilitate trade.” R-CALF USA said it strenuously objects to APHIS’ apparent strategy.
“We trust your Administration does not want to be complicit in APHIS’ ongoing perversion of its mandate to protect against the ‘introduction’ into or ‘dissemination’ within the US of foreign animal diseases like FMD,” Mr Thornsberry continued in his letter.
"We are convinced that APHIS’ disdain for its statutory responsibility underpins the final rule regarding Santa Catarina, Brazil, which it published despite ample evidence showing its risk-methodology is inadequate to protect the US against the introduction and dissemination of FMD.”
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