USDA has announced the discovery of an atypical BSE case in a five year old or older beef cow at a slaughter plant in South Carolina. This is the seventh case of BSE discovered in the US, the first going back to 2003. USDA don’t expect any trade implications from this discovery given their negligible risk BSE status.

If that position holds with beef exports to China, it would be at variance with China’s import protocols for Brazil and Ireland. Earlier this year, Brazil had to cease beef exports to China because of discovering an atypical BSE case as they had to in September 2021. Ireland also had to suspend beef exports to China I May 2020 following the discovery of a case, this suspension was only lifted in January this year.

China/Hong Kong was the third largest export market for US beef in the first quarter of 2023 at just over 55,000t worth $582.4m