Portugal lifts ban on bullfights

LISBON, Portugal -- Portugal has lifted a temporary suspension on bullfights, but is maintaining strict controls to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

The agriculture ministry said on Wednesday that bullfights could resume if bulls were transported in disinfected and specially sealed trucks.

The animals would also have to be slaughtered immediately after the fight, if they were bred on different farms.

Unlike in Spain, bulls are not killed in the ring in Portugal, although they are often slaughtered afterward.

Bullfighters protested that the suspension announced on March 16 -- aimed at preventing the highly contagious and financially devastating disease -- threatened their livelihood.

The ministry kept a suspension in place on rural livestock fairs, which could spread foot-and-mouth were it to appear in Portugal.

No case of foot-and-mouth disease has been detected in Portugal, which has ordered screening of all cows, sheep, pigs and goats imported since the beginning of February.

More than a million animals have either been culled or earmarked for slaughter in Britain in an attempt to get a grip on the highly infectious livestock disease now plaguing the country for a seventh week.

The disease has spread to France, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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