Mexico has narrowed its ban on Brazilian poultry to shipments from Santa Catarina, the state where Brazil's Agriculture Ministry confirmed a Newcastle disease outbreak last month. Exporters in Brazil's other poultry-producing states can ship to Mexico again.
The outbreak was found on a commercial turkey farm in Santa Catarina and made public on 19 October. Mexico first suspended imports from the whole of Brazil, covering poultry meat, live birds, offal, fertile eggs, chicks up to three days old and several kinds of pet and ornamental birds, saying it wanted to protect its own poultry industry, which is free of the disease. By 3 November the suspension applied to Santa Catarina alone.
Mexico was Brazil's seventh-largest poultry market from January to September this year, buying about 182,000 metric tons, or around 4.5 percent of Brazil's shipments in that period.
China, one of Brazil's biggest buyers, followed a similar path. Brazil's meat industry group ABPA said the sanitary protocol between the two countries normally calls for a nationwide suspension whenever Newcastle disease is confirmed anywhere in Brazil, but after talks between the governments China agreed on 20 October to restrict only Santa Catarina. China took about 10 percent of Brazil's chicken exports in the first nine months of 2026, according to trade data cited by the ministry. Chile restricted imports from Santa Catarina alone from the start.
Santa Catarina produces around 15 percent of Brazil's poultry, and Brazil is the world's largest exporter of chicken meat. Newcastle disease is a highly contagious viral infection of poultry and wild birds that can kill many birds in unvaccinated flocks, and because it is notifiable under international animal health rules, a confirmed case must be reported to trading partners.
The episode recalls July 2024, when a Newcastle case in Rio Grande do Sul led China to ban Brazilian poultry nationwide until January 2026, according to the ministry. Brazilian officials credited direct talks with China for the narrower outcome this time. The ministry has not said when Mexico, China or Chile might lift their restrictions on Santa Catarina, and all three remained in place in early November.
Photo: USDA / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Global Agriculture
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