By Nicholas Winning
SAO PAULO,
Brazil (Reuters) - A cow in the key southern Brazilian ranching
state of Rio Grande do Sul shows signs of having foot-and-mouth
disease although a blood test is still pending, Brazil's Agriculture
Ministry said on Sunday.
The case if
confirmed would be the first sign of the financially-devastating
livestock disease in the world's biggest commercial herd since
August 2000, when Brazil slaughtered 11,000 head in the state
to contain an outbreak.
``There's
only one case for now,'' said Miguel Bueno, the spokesman for
Brazilian Agriculture Minister Vinicius Pratini de Moraes. ``Clinically
it points to a possible case of foot-and-mouth, but the serology
has yet to be confirmed.''
The cow was
found in the town of Santana do Livramento, near Uruguay, which
has been struggling with its own outbreak of the highly contagious
disease which causes blisters and fever in cattle, pigs, sheep
and other cloven-hoofed animals.
Bueno said
the area had been isolated and a vaccination program was due to
be implemented on Monday, although he was unsure about the number
of cattle that would be immunized.
The state
of Rio Grande do Sul had stopped vaccinating its 13 million cattle
in April 2000 and has been awaiting the coveted ''foot-and-mouth
free without vaccination'' status from the Paris-based International
Epizootic Office (OIE).
But, Rio Grande
do Sul's governor and Pratini de Moraes decided on Tuesday to
resume limited inoculation against the disease in the municipalities
bordering Uruguay and Argentina as a precaution against the disease
spreading into Brazil.
The agriculture
minister has said the limited vaccination scheme should not delay
an OIE vaccine-free stamp for the region.
The rest of
Brazil's 167 million head of cattle are going through a vaccination
program which aims to make the country foot-and-mouth immunization
free in 2005.
While humans
are not considered to be at risk from the disease, foot-and-mouth
can devastate a country's ranching industry as has happened recently
in Britain as some countries refuse to import farm goods from
nations with infected herds.
Aside from
vaccination, Brazil has turned the normally picturesque valley
of the Uruguay River, which separates Brazil from Argentina, Paraguay
and Uruguay, into a military zone to prevent the spread of the
disease from its infected neighbors.
Air Force
helicopters and surveillance planes, armored personnel carriers,
marine patrol boats and heavily armed soldiers in camouflage have
been deployed along the river to intercept any contraband livestock
or would-be rustlers.
Brazil currently
has a ban on live animals, beef products, animal reproductive
material or vegetable products from Uruguay and Argentina without
proper certification after both reported cases of the disease.
Uruguay, whose
main export revenue earner is beef, manages an 11-million-head
cattle herd and a 15-million-strong flock of sheep, while Argentina
has almost 55 million head of cattle.
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