Portuguese BSE livestock export ban poses threat to Spanish bullfights

Date: 14/01/1999

By Myles Neligan

SPAIN'S bullfighting season may be disrupted this year as a result of the European Commission's ban on Portuguese beef and livestock exports.

The embargo, imposed by Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler last November in response to Portugal's escalating BSE crisis, means that the country's lucrative exports of prize bulls for slaughter in Spanish bullrings have been suspended.

As Portuguese bulls account for nearly 40&percent; of the 1,500 animals which die in Spain's second-most popular spectator sport each year, there are fears that some of this year's bullfighting events may have to be postponed or cancelled.

Plans are under way in Spain to purchase bulls from Spanish breeders instead, before the bullfighting season begins in April, but smaller bullfight promoters may be deterred by the higher cost of domestically bred animals.

Portuguese bull breeders, who stand to lose €3 million in revenues this year as a result of the ban, are protesting that animals bred to die in the bullring should be exempt from the embargo because they are not intended for human consumption.

“There is a feeling that the suspension of exports of fighting bulls is an unintended consequence of the ban,” said a Portuguese diplomat. “These animals are destroyed after the fight. There is no danger of contamination.”

The Portuguese association of bull breeders has written to the Commission outlining its fears that its members' lucrative Spanish markets will be lost permanently to competitors in Spain and France.

Lisbon has asked Fischler's staff to clarify whether or not fighting bulls are subject to the ban, and to consider the possibility of exempting them if they are.

Fischler has yet to reply formally, but Commission officials insist that the embargo covers all forms of livestock and say that exceptions will not be made for Portuguese fighting bulls. “The terms of the ban are quite clear,” said one. “These arguments will not change our mind.”

While no parts of bulls killed in the ring enter the human food chain, their carcasses are routinely rendered down to produce tallow, gelatin, and other beef by-products used by industry. Officials say the risk of allowing potentially contaminated animals to be processed in this way is too great.

Although Portugal has recorded fewer cases of BSE than the UK and Ireland, the disease is spreading at a faster rate. The ban on Portuguese livestock exports is due to be reviewed in April 2000, just in time for next year's bullfighting season.

But as Spain usually imports its quota of fighting bulls in January and February, similar problems are likely to arise next year as well.