December 11, 2012

Brazil will temporarily suspend the ractopamine feed additive and other beta blockers, which aid muscle growth in animals, due to concerns of being shut off from its largest beef importer, Russia.

The ban will be in effect until Brazil can set up a segregation system for beef and pork produced for foreign markets where ractopamine is banned in meat, said Carlos Mota, a representative from the Agriculture Ministry.

Ractopamine is in a class of drugs known as beta inhibitors or blockers that counteract the effects of adrenaline on the nervous system and slow the heart rate. In livestock, it promotes muscle gain.

Mota said the ministry had banned ractopamine and other so-called beta inhibitor drugs since November 12, after Russia said it would require future meat imports to be free of the drug and that some exporting states would have to certify their meat.

Russia said that it would step up tests on US and Canadian meat imports for traces of the banned feed additive.

The European Union and China already have certain restrictions on use of the drugs in meat.

It is still not clear that Brazil had yet been using ractopamine on a commercial basis, said Jerry O'Callaghan, head of investor relations at JBS SA, the world's biggest beef exporter.

Brazil has exported 896,670 tonnes of beef between January and September and Russia imported 212,456 tonnes of it, according to data published by Brazil's meat exporters association, Abiec.

Ractopamine is not authorised for human consumption but it is permitted as a limited feed additive for livestock by the United Nations.