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BUENOS
AIRES, Argentina (AP) _ Fresh and frozen Argentine beef
exports to the United States have been suspended temporarily
over concerns of possible foot-and-mouth disease contamination,
officials said Friday. The self-imposed suspension by
Argentina, the world"s fourth-largest beef exporter,
was taken as a preventive measure after cattle bred near
the Paraguayan border were believed to be infected with
the disease.
Argentine
Agriculture Secretary Antonio Berhongaray said the decision
to halt exports of fresh, chilled, and frozen beef would
not affect Argentina"s status as a country free of
the disease, a designation bestowed more than a year ago.
Speaking with local news agency Diarios y Noticias, Berhongaray
said "no country had modified its sanitary status"
for Argentine beef and emphasized the move was only precautionary.
He did not say when exports might resume. In Washington,
officials in the U.S. Department of Agriculture said they
did not expect Argentina"s would be a long-lasting
measure. "We prefer to think of it as a temporary
hold on imports until we can get the situation clarified,"
said Anna Cherry, a spokeswoman in the department"s
animal and plant health inspection service.
The
decision comes after Argentina ordered some 3,000 grass-fed
cattle destroyed earlier this week. Some cattle bred in
grasslands close to the northern border with Paraguay
had tested positive for the virus that causes foot-and-mouth,
a disease that usually causes cattle to stop eating and
die. Under trade agreements, Argentina is allowed to export
20,000 tons of beef to the United States each year. Senasa
President Oscar Bruni is expected to travel to Washington
in the coming days to meet with agriculture officials
there.
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