Imported meat in Egypt triggers war

The Minister of Agriculture, Reda Ismail, is being urged to stop these imports and ban Ministery committees from travelling to Ethiopia to buy live cattle.

There are claims that the meat from these cattle is responsible for raising the rates of infection with tuberculosis among Egyptians, especially given that a female veterinarian Mary Moussa has become afflicted with the disease due to her work at the slaughterhouse dealing with diseased animals.

Further, veterinarians warn of a foot and mouth epidemic in Egypt’s animal wealth: this disease has appeared in a number of governorates including Sohag, Qena and Aswan in Upper Egypt, due to the smuggling of Sudanese cows across the southern borders.

Foot and mouth is widespread in cattle herds in Ethiopia and Sudan. Corrupt importers are exploiting citizens’ needs to cope with the gap between local production of 700,000 tonnes annually, while consumers require 1,200,000 tonnes.

The importers are putting pressure on the government, taking advantage of its fear of increasing citizens’ anger at the recurring meat crises, especially when infected meat has been sold, causing widespread diseases, including the initial case of Indian meat infected with sarcocyst.

On that occasion, former Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza, who is currently imprisoned, responded to the importers’ calls, claiming that the effect of the sarcocyst would disappear with cooking.

The causal factors included bad Indian pasture conditions in some areas, environmental pollutants including dioxin and impacts of heavy metals.

Veterinarian Yasser Abaza warns of absent veterinary supervision of the slaughterhouses, which has led to infected meat entering local markets and caused diseases in consumers, such as Mycobacterium paratuberculosis that is infecting 20 per cent of the total population in Egypt.

Unfortunately, symptoms of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis in cattle cannot be detected by the naked eye. In addition, government quarantines and slaughterhouses are plagued with corruption.

When meat from Sudanese cattle is similarly infected to that coming from Ethiopia, Veterinary Quarantines Authority veterinarians have issued a report stating the meat is disease free" in return for a bribe.