RP allowed to import buffalo meat from India

Ther Paris-based international animal health monitoring agency, Office Internationale des Epizooties (OIE) reiterated an earlier statement that it is safe for the Philippines to import buffalo meat from countries like India which has not been declared as  free from foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

OIE International Trade Department head David Wilson corraborated a previous opinion issued by OIE director general Dr. Bernard Vallat on the issue of importation of buffalo meat from an FMD-infected country.

"The OIE’s position is that the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code (the Code) serves to assure the sanitary safety of international trade in terrestrial animals and their products. This is achieved through detailed health measures to be used by the veterinary authorities of importing and exporting countries to avoid the transfer of agents pathogenic for animals or humans, while avoiding unjustified sanitary barriers," Wilson said in anwers to queries made by Albert T. Lim, president of the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NFHFI).

Lim’s group wrote Wilson asking for clarification. The NFHFI has been opposing the importation of carabeef by the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI), blaming the increasing imports for declining sales of local pork.

The group is lobbying to have the Senate pass a bill that bans importation of carabeef from countries not yet declared safe from FMD.

Carabeef which is cheaper than local pork, is being used as raw material by PAMPI members that include Del Monte Phils. Inc., Purefoods-Hormel Co., Swift Foods Inc., SMC Foods Inc., and Foodshpere Inc. to manufacture hotdgos, sausages, corned beef and other processed meat.

Carabeef from India is priced at about $1.15 per kilo compared to about $1.75 from the US and Brazil.

Wilson said the FMD chapter of the Code covering the import of fresh meat from an FMD-infected country with an official control program involving vaccination recommends that the meat may be safely imported provided that certain restrictions are applied to the animals from which the meat is derived.

Earlier, Vallat answered inquiries made by Bureau of Animal Industry director Dr. Jose Molina and PAMPI on whether importation of  buffalo meat or carabeef should be confined to countries determined by OIE as free from FMD.

Vallat said the imports of carabeef from countries like India, are allowed under Article 2.1.1.22 of the FMD chapter of the OIE Terrestrial Code but certain measures are required.

Vallat said these measures include vaccination, keeping distance of animals from FMD outbreak areas of at least 10 kilometers, that the animals are slaughtered in an approved abattoir and subjected for ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections for FMD with favorable results.