[Mike]

Foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Paraguay leads to cattle eradication measure
Posted on September 23, 2011 by The Extinction Protocol

September 23, 2011 – PARAGUAY has begun slaughtering hundreds of cattle as part of an effort to combat an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, officials said.

Some 820 animals were being killed yesterday in the effort to eradicate an outbreak that has sent tremors through a region famous for its meat industry, said the interim director of the National Animal Quality and Health Service, Carlos Simon.

The procedure was being performed in the presence of international observers from the World Health Organization and Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture.

The affected animals came from an area 400km northeast of Asuncion, in the department of San Pedro. Officials said the slaughter, in which cattle are being put down with rifle shots to the head, would end Friday.

Brazil, the world’s number two beef supplier, said this week it would temporarily ban all imports of beef, pork, pigs and live cattle from Paraguay.

Uruguay, where beef is the top export, also closed its borders to animals, animal byproducts and certain goods from Paraguay.

Argentina, the sixth largest beef exporter, issued a food health-alert and suspended imports from Paraguay.

Peru, meanwhile, said it was banning the import of livestock from Paraguay for 180 days to try to contain the disease.

Beef is the number two export for small and mostly rural Paraguay, totalling $US650 million ($A667.83 million) last year. Paraguay on Monday suspended livestock exports for 80 days, moving to throw the brakes on a crisis that is certain to hit the country’s economy hard and set back its recovery from another foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2002.

Source: http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/food-and-mouth-disease-outbreak-in-paraguay-leads-to-cattle-eradication-measure/