Uruguay | Montevideo | Interview with Dr. Sienra | Blood farms for hormone production

At the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, we meet with Professor Dr. Ricardo Sienra, director of the Technical Group for Animal Welfare, and Jorge Armstrong, deputy director of the Animal Industry Division. They cannot tell us how many companies and farms are involved in the blood business. They say that the blood serum is exported to Europe, to the EU, but cannot name any countries. The inspection of this activity would be the responsibility of the Animal Health Division. However, there are no animal welfare laws relating to the production of blood serum. Uruguay would refer to international guidelines. We ask which international guidelines they are referring to. Prof. Sienra and Dr. Armstrong point out the guidelines of the OIE and the European authority for consumer protection, SANCO, which regularly carries out inspections. However, they explain that during these audits, the blood production was never an issue, only the meat production. We continue to ask questions and Dr. Sienra admits that he has no knowledge of international regulations for the hormone production. He asks us, should we know any, to pass them on to him. He assumes that the importing countries have chosen Uruguay to produce the blood serum, because the animal welfare requirements in Europe would not allow this production. He tells us that many countries that buy the blood serum for further processing do not produce it themselves, but they also have not inquired about the monitoring of animal welfare conditions at the production sites in Uruguay.