Group Requests Suspension of Brazil Ruminant, Products

By CnAgri Print

In a letter sent Thursday, R-CALF USA is requesting that United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack immediately suspend imports of ruminants and ruminant products from Brazil.

According to the letter, this request comes days after "the Brazilian government notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) that a confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was detected in Brazil in a cow that died two years earlier, in December 2010."

Due to the confirmation of BSE, Brazil must now be included on the list of countries where BSE is known to exist. "With this mandatory change to Brazil's disease status, Brazil is not eligible to import into the United States ruminants that have been in Brazil, meat, meat products and edible products other than meat," R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard wrote in the letter.

Bullard continued, "Further, until USDA conducts a through risk assessment of the risk of introducing BSE into the United States from Brazil and further conducts a public rulemaking with notice and opportunity for comment should USDA propose to include Brazil as a country with a minimal risk of BSE, Brazilian imports of ruminants and ruminant products must be prohibited."