China bans UK beef after single case of BSE
China has announced a ban on imports of British beef from cattle under 30 months of age after a single case of BSE was recently confirmed in cattle in Somerset.
The General Administration of Customs said in a statement posted on Chinese social media that the ban took effect from 29 September.
A single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as ‘mad cow disease’, was confirmed in September on a farm in Somerset.
Prior to this, there had been five cases of BSE in the UK since 2014, all of these in animals which, as fallen stock, were not destined for the food chain.
Beijing first imposed a ban on British beef in the 1990s, when millions of cattle were culled across the UK during a BSE epidemic.
But the new ban by the Chinese government comes just three years after it had agreed with the UK government to restart buying British beef.
by Farming UK
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