Brazil establishes working group on cattle traceability

Brazil has established a working group to advance measures to control the traceability of cattle and buffalo in the country. The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) said that the group will prepare a strategic plan to implement public policy on the identification of animals, including history, location and movement. The secretary of agricultural defense, Carlos Goulart said that the issue of traceability has been raised in Brazil “for a long time” by purchasing countries. “Traceability improves our control capacity in animal health programs, improves our handling of episodic outbreak issues and our profile of commitment to the requirements of importing countries,” he said. The move towards traceability is part of Brazil’s commitment to tackle deforestation as a result of cattle production. Traceability Goulart noted that the debate on traceability is “old” and involves many parties along the food chain. Although some consensus has been reached on how this is to ...