December 10, 2012

Japan ceases beef imports from Brazil

Japan has temporarily ceased beef imports from Brazil after a cow was tested positive for mad-cow disease.

"We suspended imports from Brazil as soon as an outbreak of BSE was confirmed," the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a statement, referring to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or the brain-wasting disease known as mad cow.

Japan will seek beef supplies from alternative exporters such as the US and Australia. Other beef importers may follow suit, bolstering cattle futures in Chicago that rallied to a record last month.

Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture said on December 7 that tests on a 13-year-old cow that died in Parana in 2010 showed it carried the "causing agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy". The animal did not develop the disease, nor did the agent cause its death, according to the Brazilian ministry.