12 November 2026, Brasília, BR: Mexico has scaled back a nationwide ban on Brazilian poultry imports, narrowing the restriction to shipments from Santa Catarina state after Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry confirmed a Newcastle disease outbreak there last month.
The outbreak was identified at a commercial turkey farm in Santa Catarina and reported publicly on October 19. Mexico initially suspended imports from all of Brazil, a measure covering poultry meat, live birds, offal, fertile eggs, chicks up to three days old, songbirds, ornamental birds, birds of prey intended for commercial trade, and pet birds. Mexican officials said the broad suspension was meant to protect the country’s domestic poultry industry, which remains free of the disease. By November 3, Mexico’s government had eased that suspension to apply only to Santa Catarina, allowing exporters in Brazil’s other poultry-producing states to resume shipments.
China, one of Brazil’s largest poultry buyers, followed a similar trajectory. Brazil’s meat lobby group ABPA said the sanitary protocol between the two countries normally calls for a nationwide suspension whenever Newcastle disease is confirmed anywhere in Brazil. After negotiations between the two governments, Chinese authorities agreed on October 20 to limit the restriction to Santa Catarina rather than apply it countrywide. China accounted for about 10 percent of Brazil’s chicken exports in the first nine months of 2026, according to official trade data cited by Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry.
Mexico was Brazil’s seventh-largest market
Mexico ranked as Brazil’s seventh-largest poultry export destination between January and September this year, importing roughly 182,000 metric tons, or about 4.5 percent of Brazil’s total shipments in that period. Chile also acted, but took the narrower route from the start, restricting imports from Santa Catarina specifically rather than imposing a countrywide ban. Chile’s restrictions cover fresh poultry meat, fertile and specific-pathogen-free eggs, day-old chicks, ornamental birds, eggs intended for human consumption, and processed products containing fresh poultry meat sourced from the affected state.
Santa Catarina accounts for around 15 percent of Brazil’s total poultry production, making it one of the country’s most important poultry-producing states. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of chicken meat, and its Agriculture Ministry said it has remained in close contact with the sanitary authorities of its importing countries throughout the response to the outbreak.
Newcastle disease is a highly contagious viral infection that affects domestic poultry and wild birds, capable of causing high mortality in unvaccinated flocks and spreading rapidly through direct contact, contaminated equipment, or airborne transmission between birds in close proximity. It is treated as a notifiable disease under international animal health reporting standards, meaning any confirmed case must be disclosed to trading partners, which is what triggered the cascade of import restrictions from Mexico, China, and Chile within days of the Santa Catarina case becoming public.
The current episode echoes a similar case in July 2024, when a Newcastle disease detection in Rio Grande do Sul state triggered a nationwide Chinese embargo on Brazilian poultry that remained in place until January 2026, according to Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry. That earlier suspension lasted roughly a year and a half, a timeline that shaped how quickly Brazilian negotiators pushed this time to limit the scope of restrictions to the affected state alone rather than risk a repeat of a prolonged, countrywide trade disruption.
Brazilian officials credited direct talks with Chinese sanitary authorities for the narrower outcome achieved this time around. The ministry has not said when it expects Mexico, China, or Chile to lift their remaining restrictions on shipments originating from Santa Catarina, and all three countries’ limited bans on the state remained in effect as of early November.
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