THE Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) and the Magsasaka Party-list (MPL) on Wednesday called for the immediate suspension of carabao meat imports from foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)-hit areas in India, saying the local livestock industry could not afford another breakout from infected meat stocks.
FFF Board Chairman Leonardo Montemayor and MPL President Argel Joseph Cabatbat enjoined the government to look into India’s animal disease, food safety and bio-control situation, citing a report from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), which found FMD is prevalent in Maharashtra and Telangana, two Indian states where several carabeef exporters to the Philippines operate processing plants.
“Despite the BAl’s findings and recommendations, the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) [still] included foreign meat establishments (FMEs) in Maharashtra and Telangana in their site inspections last October,” Montemayor and Cabatbat said in a statement.
The NMIS report will be the basis of a DA review of currently accredited FMEs supplying carabeef to the Philippines.
“The local livestock sector, especially swine, cannot withstand another catastrophe on the heels of the still rampant African swine fever (ASF),” the farmers’ groups said. Since the Philippines imports 32 to 48 million kilos of carabeef from India annually, the groups assured that banning carabeef from certain states would not affect supply. “Our meat processors can still source their carabeef from FMD-free FMEs in India,” the groups explained.
FMD spreads quickly and weakens cloven-hoofed animals such as hogs, cattle, carabaos, goats and sheep, lessening their meat and milk output.
The World Organization for Animal Health declared the Philippines FMD-free in 2011, allowing the country to export livestock.Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has lifted the temporary import ban on domestic and wild pigs, as well as their products, originating from Sweden.
Memorandum Order 53, issued on Nov. 26, authorizes the entry of domestic and wild pigs, pork meat, pig skin and semen from Sweden to the Philippines, saying that upon evaluation, the DA found the risk of contamination from these meat products was “negligible.”
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