Brazil's trade agreement with China, the biggest buyer of Brazilian chicken, requires a temporary suspension of exports whenever Newcastle disease is detected, as it was on Sunday (18) at a commercial turkey farm in Nova Itaberaba, in the western part of Santa Catarina state. The information was given on Monday (19) by Ricardo Santin, president of the Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA), the industry group for poultry and pork producers, in an interview with Reuters, according to a report by g1.
Under the mechanism, called a self-embargo by the industry, Brazil halts shipments as a precaution and Chinese authorities then decide the scope of the restriction. The ban can cover the whole country, only the affected state or just the region where the disease was identified. "Some countries, like China, if one of these diseases (Newcastle or avian flu) occurs, Brazil has to suspend exports so that it can define how the regionalization (of the embargo) will work," Santin said, as quoted by g1. According to the ABPA president, few countries have agreements of this kind. For most importers, the restriction is limited to a 10-kilometer radius around the outbreak.
China's weight in the market
From January to September this year, China accounted for about 10% of Brazilian chicken exports, the equivalent of 420,000 tonnes, according to federal government data. A restriction limited to the affected region would soften the blow to shipments, but the size of the exposure depends on the criteria Beijing adopts. Santa Catarina accounts for just over 20% of the country's chicken exports.
The Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) confirmed on Monday the Newcastle outbreak at a commercial turkey farm with about 6,000 birds, after laboratory confirmation at the Federal Agricultural Defense Laboratory in São Paulo. The farm was shut down and bird movements were suspended. Teams will monitor roughly 133 properties in Nova Itaberaba and the neighboring towns of Coronel Freitas, Nova Erechim and Águas Frias. The occurrence will be notified to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and to Brazil's trade partners.
In a joint statement, the ABPA, the Santa Catarina Poultry Association (ACAV) and the state's meat industry union said the virus was detected without any clinical signs of the disease in the confined birds. The groups described the case as an animal health issue, limited to production, not a food safety problem. MAPA stressed that poultry products that pass official inspection remain safe to eat, with no restrictions.
For producers, the risk now lies in how broad Beijing decides to make the restriction, and Santin said it is still too early to estimate losses. For Brazilian consumers, nothing changes for now: there will be no product recalls and no return of birds that already left other farms in the region, and inspected chicken and eggs remain cleared for consumption.