Japan, China, South Africa, South Korea and Saudi Arabia have imposed a ban on Brazil beef imports, over concerns of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease.
This move comes after Brazil's recent report, which revealed that a cow in Parana state was found to contain proteins that cause BSE. Even though the incident occurred in 2010, Brazil did not make the report public until December 2012, which increased the fears among the importing nations.
Brazil blamed the delay on a laboratory backlog and priorities.
Brazil's Agriculture Ministry said that the finding does not present any risk to public health or animal sanitary safety as the animal did not 'manifest the disease nor die of it.
Among the nations that have imposed the import ban, Saudi Arabia is among the top ten importers of Brazilian beef. Egypt has imposed a ban on beef imports from Parana.
Brazil is the world's leading exporter of beef and the country has shipped beef worth $4.2bn for the first nine months of this year, up nine percent from 2011.
