Brazil, a leading beef exporter in the world, took measures to curb the outbreak of the foot-and-mouth disease in its main export-oriented beef-producing zone, Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues said Wednesday.

The government is making the utmost efforts to control the epizootic and "normalize exports," Rodrigues said in regard to the decision made Tuesday by several countries to suspend purchases of Brazilian beef.

Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, Israel, Paraguay, Russia, South Africa and the 25 countries of the European Union cancelled the imports after the contagious animal disease was confirmed in the Vezozzo rural estate of the Eldorado municipality in the southwestern Mato Grosso do Sul state.

The agricultural authorities, after detecting 153 cows infected with the disease at Vezozzo, decided to slaughter the 582 animals of the estate and restrict the movement of cattle in the region.

Rodrigues said it is impossible to know the impact of the outbreak on the country's beef exports to 150 countries and territories. With 180 million head of livestock, Brazil's animal husbandry sector generated nearly US$1.5 billion in the first half of 2005.

The Agriculture Ministry plans to send a mission on Friday to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to show that the rest of the country is not at stake.

OIE considers only 14 out of the 27 Brazilian states are free from the foot-and-mouth disease.

The government said it is investigating the origin of the outbreak in the Mato Grosso do Sul state, where a vaccination campaign was launched in May.

(Xinhua News Agency October 13, 2005)