SAO PAULO — Brazil, the world’s largest beef exporter, has halted shipments of meat to China after a case of mad cow disease was confirmed, raising farmers’ concerns about a prolonged ban on beef from the country’s largest trading partner.
Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture said late Wednesday that it had notified the World Organization for Animal Health and sent samples for testing in Canada after a case of bovine spongiform encephalitis was discovered on a small farm in the Amazonian state of Pará.
As part of a 2015 bilateral agreement with China, Brazil is obligated to automatically suspend beef shipments to China when the disease is detected. Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture did not respond to requests for comment on whether shipments to other countries, including the United States, would be halted.
In 2021, two cases of mad cow disease forced Brazil to suspend beef exports to China, the largest buyer of Brazilian meat, for about three months, dealing a heavy blow to the country’s farmers.
The Para state government said it detected the case on a farm with about 160 head of cattle, saying the symptoms indicated it was an atypical case of the disease, which occurs spontaneously in older cows and is less severe, rather than the classic type of infection. Usually due to contaminated livestock feed.
The cases detected two years ago were also of an unusual kind, according to industry group Abrafrigo, but Beijing still maintained a months-old ban as Brazilian officials worked to convince China that the country’s meat was safe.
Brazilian beef exports already came under scrutiny in 2017 when police accused inspectors in the Latin American country of taking bribes to allow the sale of spoiled and salmonella-infested meat, prompting China and other countries to cut off imports.
Cesar de Castro Alves, an agricultural expert, said rising US beef prices may dissuade Americans from joining China in imposing their own ban this time, especially if the mad cow disease case is confirmed as atypical and contained in just one state. . Expert at the Brazilian investment bank Itaú BBA. The USDA did not respond to requests for comment.
China’s prolonged ban on Brazilian beef could be good news for Australian farmers, industry analysts said, encouraging China to speed up negotiations to ease restrictions on imports from that country. Trade tensions with Australia intensified in 2020 after Canberra sought support from European leaders to investigate Beijing’s early response to the pandemic.
“All measures are taken promptly at every stage of the investigation, and the matter is dealt with in full transparency to ensure the recognized quality of our meat for Brazilian and global consumers,” said Brazilian Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro.
Mr. Favaro said in a televised interview late Wednesday that he hoped the ban would be lifted before President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visits China at the end of March, his first visit to the country since taking office for the third time last month.
Write to Samantha Pearson at [email protected]
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