The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (MAPA) has announced the appearance of a suspected case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, better known as “mad cow” disease. According to the portfolio, a sample has already been carried out to confirm or rule out the first analysis, and the necessary measures are being implemented to prevent the spread.
In an official statement, the MAPA has ensured that the corresponding actions will be applied based on the result of the analysis. However, the statement has not specified the area where the suspected case has been detected. According to Brazilian regional media reports, the case could have been detected in an elderly animal in the state of Pará. The result of the second analysis, which will be the final one, will be known next Thursday.
Given the appearance of the suspicious case, it has been decided preventively paralyze the slaughterhouse market. Notably Brazil is the world’s leading exporter of beefand news of this type can affect their buyer markets, generating a possible decrease in imports.
Da Silva says it is “good news” for Uruguay
The senator for the National Party (and agricultural businessman), Sebastián Da Silva, celebrated the appearance of “mad cow” in Brazil, saying on Twitter that it is “good news”
“The crazy Cow that appeared in Brazil is the first good news for livestock in 2023,” said the right-wing legislator in Uruguay. “While the sanitary protocol is in effect, phones will start to explode from china”, he added.
It is important to remember that in 2021, Brazil suspended beef exports to China after confirming two cases of “atypical” mad cow disease in two meat plants. On that occasion, the authorities clarified that the animals had developed the disease spontaneously and sporadically, unrelated to the ingestion of contaminated food, and that there was no transmission of the disease to other animals.
He defended himself against criticism
Faced with the widespread repudiation that his tweet generated, Da Silva went out to try to clarify what, according to him, he meant.
“While at the Dubai fair, I hear this comment and it doesn’t seem right. Here is a neighboring country that we have next door. Celebrating someone else’s misfortune does not seem like the best way to promote Uruguayan livestock. You have to do it from another side, for example, as INAC does,” the agronomist and advisor Jose Manuel Mesa wrote on Twitter. And Da Silva replied: “Here the panorama is similar to what you see there in the desert. The sale of the Hacienda prior to winter with this drought must be done at the highest possible value. I defend the producer. More in these circumstances.”
“It is a moral, Christian issue, not to rejoice in the misfortune of others. That producer had the misfortune of finding that animal in his roundup, there is no way that this could be good news, ”replied another user of the social network who stated that his family also lives from livestock.
“Most of those who criticize this tweet have no idea what it’s like to face a winter with this scenario.. They also don’t know what it’s like to give away cattle, let alone the work involved. Nobody celebrates misfortunes. I only describe a reality ”, the nationalist legislator defended himself.
