PHOENIX, Arizona – South America is gradually ridding itself of foot and mouth disease, a move that may open the door for an entire continent of beef producers eager to trade on the world market. Each region is applying for the right to export as it receives a clean bill of health. More than half of the continent’s cattle are already free of the disease.
Venezuela has 12.5 million cattle with a goal of no foot and mouth by 2003. Ecuador has five million cattle and plans to be free of disease by 2005.
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Bolivia, a hotbed of foot and mouth, has worked continuously with American officials to be clean by 2006.
Brazil has 157 million head. Two states have been free of disease for three years and are requesting export status. Fifteen of the country’s 27 states have not had a case in two years, affecting 65 million head.
Chile has four million head and has been foot and mouth free since 1981. Argentina has 56 million head and has been clean since 1997. Columbia has 21 million head and has been clean since 1977. Paraguay has been disease-free since 1987 and Uruguay has been free since 1986.
A country needs one year free of disease without vaccination to join the global market.
The United States Department of Agriculture helps South American countries with prevention and vaccinations. It also monitors to prevent the disease’s movement into North America.
“It is the most dreadful disease among animals,” said Alphonso Torres of the USDA’s animal plant health inspection service.
Foot and mouth started in Brazil and spread across the Andean region during the 1950s. Health officials hope it is eradicated from the continent by 2009.
Central America and the Caribbean have always been free of the disease. These areas are regarded as buffer zones between North and South America. The disease threatened Canada in 1952 when it entered the country in European sausage.
The U.S. and Mexico starting fighting the disease in 1920 and wiped it out in 1954.
