Foot and Mouth Disease has been confirmed in England and now Belize’s Ministry of Agriculture has banned British meat and dairy products.
They say its important to act decisively because of the widely held misconception that Belize still has close trade ties with England, because it is the only former British colony in Latin America.
That was proved during the last foot and mouth outbreak in the uk in 2001 when Central America and Mexico wrongly concluded that belize is a high risk country and effectively closed their borders to importations of live cattle and cattle products from belize.
So now, the Ministry of Agriculture and BAHA will enforce regulations especially in the commercial free zone areas to assure neighboring countries and trading partners that appropriate preventative measures are in place.
Belize recently asked the World Organization for Animal Health to recognize us as officially free of foot and mouth without vaccination and it is expected that we should get that accreditation by the end of August.
