THE EDITOR, Madam:
'BRAZIL closes the border against the foot-and-mouth disease from neighbours.'
This is what our press said on the August 16-17 editions of Jornal do Brasil, but in The Gleaner of August 30, the news is quite the opposite: 'Brazil-cattle disease toll rises considerably.' You have published a news story by Reuters news agency, informing (or mis-informing) your readers that cattle disease in Brazil, in the southernmost State of Rio Grande do Sul, was threatening our neighbours Argentina and Uruguay.
The report declares that some 28 cattle infected with a viral sickness (foot-and-mouth, or aphtous fever, according to the International Zoosanitary Code, of the International Epizooties Organisation IEO) were causing serious preoccupation in those neighbour countries. It is true, in part, but the context of the news story is another.
The whole truth is that, for the first time in many, many years, Brazil, with a total of 140 million bovine cattle against 50 million of Argentina's) is nowadays the largest exporter to the USA and Europe, besides selling also high technology, such as the state-of-the-art aircraft by Embraer. After a hard, long struggle to eradicate the disease, Brazil finally received the certificate of the aforementioned IEO, according to which Brazil is now free of that cattle virus and is, ironically, threatened by the former 'no problem' neighbours. Our border was closed to Argentine cattle from the provinces of Corrientes, Entrerios and Formosa, considered 'areas of vigilance', and a quarantine is demanded for at least 21 days.
The news in your prestigious paper suggested just the opposite. As a matter of fact, Brazilian troops were despatched to close and protect our border with Paraguay to bar the entry of their infected cattle! Fortunately, regarding Argentina, the relevant authorities have acted promptly and correctly, according to Mr. Luis Carlos de Oliveira, Secretary of Agropecuary Affairs of the Ministry of Agriculture of Brazil.
He declared (to Jornal do Brasil, one of the prestigious papers of Rio, on August 17, page 17, under the headline 'Brazil prohibits Argentine cattle into the country') that, after this measure, Argentina has been transparent and correct in dealing with this matter, and for that reason it wasn't deemed necessary to send troops to our common border.
That was not, alas, the case with Paraguay, though. The certificate of disease-free granted to Brazil by the IEO will allow the country to earn US$1 billion in the current year in exports of bovine meat. Mind you that such a 'good quality' certificate, a very difficult-to-obtain acknowledgement of our successful efforts, praised, precisely, the States of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Mato Grosso do Sul.
It won't be biased to say, therefore, that our huge the world's biggest bovine herds have been infected, first by their cattle, and now this undesirable Trojan gift seems to have kicked back to their cattle, having caused there the admitted cases of viral infection, happily innocuous to man, mentioned in the Reuters news release.
I am, etc.,
VICTOR M. DE MORAES
Acting Ambassador of Brazil
