This article is from page 38 of the 2007-11-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 38 JPG
THE IFA is once again pilling the pressure on Agriculture Mi£nister, Mary Coughlan, seeking an all out ban on Brazilian beef imports. Following the publication last week of FVO report on the standard of beef production in Brazil and a fresh outbreak of foot and mouth disease confirmed in Cyprus, IFA President says that Coughlan and EU Health and Consumer Protection Commis- sioner, Markos Kyprianou, must act to safeguard the Irish beef sector “The EU Commission has lowered Europe’s defensive barriers against Foot and Mouth disease to unac- ceptably low levels and continues to
expose the European livestock sector and Member States to unnecessary risks,” he said.
“Continuing to expose the Europe- an livestock sector and EU citizens to an unacceptable risk on foot and mouth disease is reckless and imme- diate action must be taken by Com- missioner Kyprianou to tighten up his flawed policy on FMD.”
The FMD virus in Cyprus has been confirmed as Serotype O, which is the common strain found in Brazil and other parts of South America.
Walshe also called for an all out ban on Brazilian beef following the publication of the FVO which found a number of shortcomings and defi- ciencies in the Brazilian beef sector.
The IFA President said Minister Coughlan now has evidence that Brazil still fails to meet EU require- ments.
‘The Minister must insist that EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou delivers on his commitment to 1m- pose a ban on Brazilian beef in view of the fact serious deficiencies previ- ously identified by the FVO have not been corrected,’ he said.
“The FVO report had again high- lighted a litany of serious problems with the standards in Brazil. It con- cluded that as aspects of the iden- tification system were incorrectly implemented, this called into ques- tion the reliability of the 40-day and
90-day residency policy, which the Commission relies on to implement regionalisation. The FVO_ found more animals registered in the SIS- BOV database than were actually present on some farms. “
The report also found shortcomings in the vaccination procedures stating that ‘no routine controls were being carried out by the competent author- ity on holdings to ensure proper vac- cination in some states’.
The vaccination programme as rec- ommended was not been followed and thus the level of herd immunity might not be sufficient to protect against FMD. The FVO observed that the FMD virus 1s still circulat- ing in parts of Mato Gross do Sul.