MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Mad cow” in US brings hope to organic producers

The outbreak of the first “mad cow” case in the United States could force a rise of beef prices in the international market benefiting organic producing countries such as Uruguay and Argentina.

"This could be an excellent chance for Argentina to recover its place in the world as beef exporter", said Guillermo González president of the Argentine Meat Industry.

"Although not in the short term, but the appearance of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, BES, will have an impact in all those countries that are normally supplied by the United States.

However Argentina and Uruguay internationally are categorized as free of foot and mouth disease with vaccination and the US is free of FAM without vaccination. Until Argentina and particularly Uruguay recover their previous status (lost in 2201/2002) some time must elapse or requirements from the purchasing countries will have to be made more flexible.

The long list of US beef clients includes Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, Chile and Russia among others.

Uruguay will be exporting this year over 360,000 tons of beef and Argentina 350,000.

The first United States BSE case was reported this week in a Holstein cow belonging to a dairy farm in the state of Washington close to the Canadian border.

BSE first appeared in 1986 in the United Kingdom but a decade later the disease expanded to the continent devastating the European Union cattle industry.

The UK in 1995 admitted a possible link between BSE and the human version of the disease known as the Creutzfedt-Jakob syndrome, and if so it is estimated that over a hundred people died of this similar strain of Creutzfedt-Jakob. Between 1986 and 2002 Britain confirmed 181.376 cases of BSE forcing the sacrifice of 3,7 million Cattle.

Last May Canada confirmed BSE in a cow in the province of Alberta.

Uruguay and Argentina have never reported any BSE cases although scrappy is known to exist in some flocks in the south of Brazil.

Cattle farming in the US is estimated to have an annual turnover of 38 billion US dollars employing directly 200,000 people and indirectly 1,4 million jobs. A "mad cow" scare among US consumers could have a demolition impact for the in