MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan beef for Europe in June.

The European Union will resume beef imports from Uruguay a month after the sanitary authorities of this country finish with the foot and mouth vaccination of the whole Uruguayan cattle stock.

Uruguay is currently inoculating its 12 million head of cattle against foot and mouth virus A strain, which was detected in mid April in an intensive farming area just across from Argentina that has been plagued with the same strain for almost a year.

European authorities, lobbied by Germany, insisted in praising Uruguay for having immediately communicated the extent of the disease which in spite of the strict isolation steps taken and having destroyed almost 9.000 cattle with the sanitary rifle in the area where the first outbreaks were reported, continues to advance and has now penetrated in southern Brazil.

The European decision comes as a relief for Uruguay that depends heavily on beef sales overseas, since it also includes accepting those beef containers that were shipped before April 23rd., when the first outbreak was reported. This means that at least 300 of an estimated total of a thousand containers will not have to return to Uruguay.

Uruguay expects to finish vaccinating before the end of May, meaning it can resume sales to the European Union of boneless and matured beef in late June.

The delay in vaccinating the whole stock stems mainly from the lack of sufficient vaccines, (Uruguay was free of FAM since 1995 and has since shut down the labs producing the vaccines), which are being supplied by Brazil and Argentina. Furthermore cattle movement has been severely restricted and there are sanitary barriers with Army support all over the country.

Europe's attitude is different to that adopted by Nafta countries, (United States, Canada and Mexico), plus Japan and Chile, that have banned all beef imports effective to shipments a month before the first outbreak, that is March 23rd.

Germany lobbied strongly because since Argentine fresh beef was banned, Uruguay was rapidly becoming the main supplier of restaurants and hotels in that country.

Meantime Uruguayan authorities announced a 130 million US dollars aid package to support agriculture and prevent the country's cattle and beef industry from coming to a standstill.