New Zealand does not have available beef to cash in on a sudden cessation of Brazilian exports to China following two cases of a form of bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE), or mad cow disease.
It has been reported that Brazil suspended exports over the weekend after confirmation that two cases of atypical BSE were detected in two separate domestic meat plants.
China has suspended trade until it determines the extent of the problem but it currently buys about 900,000 tonnes of Brazil’s two million tonnes of annual beef exports.
Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva says that the volume of Brazilian beef exports to China will be difficult for any country to replace, but NZ is currently at the low point of its processing season.
While the ban is temporary, Karapeeva says there is potential for disruption to other NZ markets.
“An extended ban on Brazilian beef by China may see Brazil look to diversify to other markets such as Indonesia, the Philippines, the Middle East and other southeast Asian countries,” Karapeeva said.
So, while there may be more demand for beef from China, this does have the potential to displace some New Zealand beef exports from these other markets.”
Argentina has export restrictions, Australia is rebuilding its herd, while the US has significantly increased its exports to China.
Brazil has never recorded a classic case of BSE.
According to the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, atypical BSE can appear spontaneously and sporadically and is unrelated to the ingestion of contaminated food, the primary source of classic BSE.
Atypical BSE has differing biologically properties and biochemical characteristics to classic BSE.
Classic BSE is caused by feeding insufficiently heated ruminant fats and proteins containing the pathogenic prion protein to cattle.
Prions and abnormal pathogenic agents that are transmitted can affect cellular proteins called prion proteins that are most abundantly found in the brain.
It can appear in countries which have not had any cases of classical BSE and the fact that the disease only occurs in older animals leads scientists to assume this extremely rare disease develops spontaneously.
“This is similar to the spontaneously occurring cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, which is also caused by prions,” a paper by the research institution stated.
