SÃO PAULO—Brazil, the world’s largest beef exporter, halted shipments of meat to China after confirming a case of mad-cow disease, raising concerns among farmers over a drawn-out beef ban from the country’s biggest trading partner.
Brazil’s agricultural ministry said late Wednesday it had notified the World Organization for Animal Health and sent samples for testing in Canada after detecting a case of the disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, at a small farm in the Amazonian state of Pará.
As part of a 2015 bilateral agreement with China, Brazil is obliged to automatically suspend shipments of beef to China upon detection of the disease. Brazil’s agricultural ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether shipments to other countries, including the U.S., would also be halted.