MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hog FAM in northern Argentina.

Brazil and Uruguay banned all meats and live animal imports from Argentina following the confirmation of an outbreak of foot and mouth, FAM, disease among hogs in the northern province of Salta close to be Bolivian border.

The FAM confirmation in a small pig farm in Tartagal was officially admitted by Argentine officials from Senasa (Agro-food health and quality office) last Friday who announced the "immediate termination of animals in the area involved".

"The sero-epidemiology tests in pigs in Salta proved positive to FAM virus", and "the skin lesions are almost a month old", reads a Senasa release.

However Senasa points out that "currently there are no animals with clinical signals of a severe disease in the area".

Senasa "will immediately proceed to the sanitary termination of the animals in the farm with the outbreak, and contacting areas, to ensure compliance with International Office of Epizooties, OIE, regulations, and therefore be able to recover the status of free of FAM with vaccination in 180 days".

The Tartagal farm, only twenty miles from the Bolivian border, is located "in a subsistence productive area recently declared in emergency as a consequence of the outbreak of the FAM disease "O" strain in Paraguay and Bolivia last July".

Senasa also indicates that livestock density in the area is very low, with no records of animals having been sent to other areas or even to local abattoirs.

The outbreak was first detected last August 29 when pigs showed skin lesions and symptoms compatible with FAM.

"Immediately, restrictive and sanitary measures were enforced, followed by ring vaccination, epidemiologic tracking, serologic tests and reports to international organizations", stresses the Senasa release.

Argentina was declared free of FAM with vaccination by the Paris based OIE last July after having experienced several outbreaks during 2001. However Patagonia in southern Argentina has been free of FAM without vaccination for almost a decade.