By Ryan Hanrahan
The Associated Press’ Abraham Tellez reported that “Mexico resumed live cattle exports to the United States on Monday after they were halted for nearly two years by restrictions imposed by the Trump administration following a screwworm outbreak.“
“Even under strict limitations, the reopening of the trade channel brought relief to Mexico’s ranching industry, which was dealt an economic blow by the controls. The flesh-eating worm is now present on both sides of the border,” Tellez reported. “In the sprawling desert mountains along the U.S.-Mexico border, hundreds of cattle began to cross from the Mexican town of Agua Prieta in the state of Sonora to the Arizona town of Douglas at around 3 p.m.”
“The process began after several hours of inspections by Mexican and U.S. authorities, who used dogs to inspect each animal and determine that they were not infected with screwworm,” Tellez reported. “…To resume exports from Mexico on Monday, the U.S. approved a new protocol that included placing radio-frequency identification tags in the cows’ ears and installing scanners to detect the tags.”
“Cattle crossings into Arizona were also limited to 700 head per day, increasing to 900 per day next week and 1,300 per day the following week,” Tellez reported. “While Mexico has hundreds of cattle ready for export, the Trump administration controls will slow recovery of the industry, leaving herds in the U.S. with the lowest cattle counts in 75 years, and a shortfall of about 1.2 million cows, which has led to a surge in beef prices.”
Source : illinois.edu