Saudi Arabia bans Brazilian beef over mad cow disease

Cairo: Saudi Arabia has suspended imports of Brazilian beef after cases of the cow mad disease were detected in the South American country, Saudi online newspaper Sabq has reported.

The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture disclosed that it was notified by Saudi Arabia of suspending beef imports from five factories due to the mad cow cases, the report said.

Earlier this month, Brazil, the world’s biggest beef exporter, halted its meat exports to China, its top buyer, after two cases of “atypical” or abnormal cases of the disease were detected in two separate Brazilian states.

The mad cow disease, also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), first appeared in Britain in 1980s.

BSE is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. In the past years, deaths were reported among people around the world after contracting the human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, believed to be linked to eating infected beef.