The discussion on the issue reached the Moroccan parliament, where the parliamentary representative of the Socialist Group in the House of Representatives, Hayat Laraish, asked the Minister of Agriculture and Marine Fishing, a question about the measures taken to address the danger of the new genetic elements carried by imported Brazilian cows.
Morocco had imported 2,800 heads of Brazilian cows last month, in addition to 20,000 heads of cows imported from a group of countries, with the aim of supplying the markets with red meat and limiting price increases.
Domestic breed protection
- Parliamentarian Hayat Laraish says that the written question she directed to the Minister of Agriculture about the possibility of “genetic contamination” comes to draw attention to the risks that the homogenization of Moroccan and Brazilian cows may pose to the local product.
- Laraish added, in a statement to “Sky News Arabia”, that importing Brazilian buffaloes could “lead to a negative impact on the biodiversity of the national livestock due to possible “genetic contamination”, which will affect the diet of other animals and citizens.”
- The parliamentarian stresses the need to work to tighten control over cows imported from outside the country, and to adhere to the goal of the process, which is to address the shortage of red meat and limit the exponential rise in its prices.
tighten surveillance
- Commenting on fears of “genetic contamination” of the national livestock, the President of the National University for Consumer Rights, Bouazza Al-Kharati, stresses the need to ensure careful tracking of the process of slaughtering all imported animals in order to supply the national market with red meat.
- Al-Kharati added, in a statement to “Sky News Arabia”, that the Consumer Protection Association had previously sounded the alarm regarding the possibility of “genetic contamination” resulting from the breeding of imported Brazilian calves with local cows.
- The spokesman stresses that being careful to direct the hidden cows to slaughter will avoid a recurrence of the “genetic contamination” scenario due to the dominance of European cows known for their white and black skin on the national market, as local cows no longer constitute only 20 percent.
- Al-Kharati stresses that importing cows for the purpose of improving eugenics or disease resistance must follow rules and procedures that depend on different criteria, pointing at the same time to “the difficulty of raising Brazilian cows in Morocco, as they need a humid climate provided by some of the regions in which they live, such as India and Brazil.” “.
Brazilian cow quality
- The “genetic contamination” controversy was preceded by a debate related to the quality and safety of imported Brazilian cows, and questions about whether they were of the Brazilian buffalo species.
- The head of the Moroccan Federation of Livestock Actors, Mohamed Jebli, says that the Brazilian cows that Morocco imported recently are considered among the best types of cows in the international market, stressing that their different shape from local cows is what created a kind of controversy among Moroccan consumers.
- And Jabali continues, in a statement to “Sky News Arabia”, that meeting the needs of the national market for red meat at reasonable prices requires relying on different breeds of cows to provide sufficient production and the required quality.
- And the spokesman stresses that the cows imported from Brazil last month will all be destined for slaughter, pointing out that it is difficult to breed this type of cows that live and graze in vast areas and is difficult to control, unlike European cows.
- And interacting with the controversy of Brazilian cows, Moroccan Minister of Agriculture Mohamed Al-Siddiqi confirmed that those cows known as “Nilor” are good varieties, and Brazil produces 214 million heads of them, and they are exported globally.
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