© Reuters. REFERENCE FILE IMAGE. Cows gathered in a farm near the city of Uruará, in Brazil, April 25, 2013. REUTERS/Nacho Doce
SAO PAULO, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock said on Wednesday that the country’s beef exports to China would stop from Thursday after a case of the disease was confirmed. mad cows in the northern state of Pará.
The suspension is part of a previously agreed animal health pact between China and Brazil and is expected to be temporary. Brazil is a major protein supplier for China.
“All measures are being taken immediately at each stage of the investigation and the matter is being handled with full transparency to guarantee Brazilian and global consumers the recognized quality of our meat,” Minister Carlos Fávaro said.
A case of the disease, formally called Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis, was previously confirmed by Pará’s agricultural defense agency.
“The symptoms indicate that it is the atypical form of the disease, which appears spontaneously in nature, with no risk of spread to the herd and to humans,” the agency said in a statement.
The sick animal was found on a property in the southeast of the state with 160 head of cattle. The site has been preemptively inspected and banned, he added.
Samples were sent to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) laboratory in Alberta, Canada, to identify whether it was the classic form of the disease or its “atypical” version.
In 2021, two cases of the disease led to a suspension of beef exports to China that lasted for more than three months.
(Reporting by Peter Frontini. Editing in Spanish by Marion Giraldo)
