Beef exports to China are suspended as of this Thursday (23) due to the confirmation of a case of mad cow disease in Pará, as informed by the Ministry of Agriculture. In a note, the folder explained that the suspension follows the health protocol between the two countries and ruled out the existence of a risk to the consumer.
“The dialogue with the authorities is being intensified to demonstrate all the information and the prompt reestablishment of the Brazilian meat trade”, said the ministry in an official note.
The ministry also provided more details about the case. According to the folder, the disease affected a nine-year-old male animal, an age considered advanced for cattle, on a small property in Marabá (PA). The animal was raised on pasture, without feed, and had the carcass incinerated on the farm, which was interdicted by the government of Pará on a preventive basis.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the case was reported to the World Organization for Animal Health (OMSA). Samples were sent to the institution’s reference laboratory in Alberta, Canada. After analysis, the laboratory will be able to confirm whether the case is atypical, that is, without risk of transmission to other cattle and humans.
“All measures are being adopted immediately at each stage of the investigation and the matter is being treated with total transparency to guarantee Brazilian and global consumers the recognized quality of our meat”, said Minister Carlos Fávaro, in a note.
No communicable cases
This will be the second time in a year and a half that Brazil suspends beef exports to China. From September to December 2021, the Asian country, Brazil’s biggest meat buyer, suspended purchases after two atypical cases, in Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso.
Crazy Cow
Until today, Brazil has not registered classic cases of mad cow, caused by the ingestion of contaminated meat and pieces of bone. Caused by a prion, a protein molecule with no genetic code, mad cow disease is a degenerative disease also called bovine spongiform encephalitis. The modified proteins consume the animal’s brain, making it comparable to a sponge.
In addition to oxen and cows, the disease affects buffaloes, sheep and goats. Ingestion of meat and animal by-products contaminated with prions causes transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in humans.
In the late 1990s, there was an outbreak of cases of mad cow disease in humans in Great Britain, which caused the consumption of beef to be suspended in the country for several months. At the time, the disease was transmitted to humans through cattle fed contaminated animal feed.
