APHIS to allow fresh beef importation from Argentina, Brazil

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced June 29 it is amending its regulations to allow the importation of fresh (chilled or frozen) beef from two regions in South America under specific conditions that mitigate the risk of foot-and-mouth disease, the first step in a process for these regions to gain access to the U.S. market for beef. The two regions are: from northern Argentina, a region located north of an area previously recognized by APHIS as free of foot and mouth disease known as the Patagonia region; and from certain states in Brazil: Bahia, Distrito Federal, Espirito Santo, Goias, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Parana, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Rondonia, Sao Paulo, Sergipe and Tocantis. APHIS risk assessments indicate that fresh (chilled or frozen) beef can be safely imported, provided certain conditions are met to ensure beef exported to the United States will not harbor the FMD virus. The assessments also concluded that Argentina and Brazil are able to comply with U.S. import certification requirements. Fresh beef from both of these regions will follow the same import conditions imposed on fresh beef and ovine meat from Uruguay that we have been safely importing for many years...more