[2023-03-13] Brazil wants China to review the protocol in case of mad cow

Source: Permanent Secretariat to the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao)

The Brazilian government expects the release of beef exports to China in the coming days and is planning a review of the protocol with the Asian country. Exports have been suspended since the end of February when a case of mad cow disease was discovered in Pará.

On the 7th of March, the Brazilian government presented to the Chinese authorities, in a videoconference, the result of the investigation of the disease registration made in Pará by the World Organization for Animal Health and which determined that it was an atypical case, when the animal develops the disease due to old age and not the transmissible version, without risk to the herd or humans.

Due to a bilateral agreement, the Brazilian government has to stop shipments of beef protein from all over the country to China whenever a case of mad cow appears. “We are going to talk later and try to change the protocol”, for example by placing an embargo on the export of meat from the state or region where the case of the disease was registered, said the special advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture, Carlos Ernesto Augustin.