Australian exporters watch US mad cow case

The Austrailan beef industry says it expects to feel the shockwaves from the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in the United States.

The US Government has confirmed the country has its first case of mad cow disease, in the west coast state of Washington.

Cattle Council of Australia president Keith Adams says the case is bad news for Australian exporters sending product into the lucrative market.

He says he is not even thinking about the possibility of any positives coming from potential worldwide bans on US beef exports.

"This is bad news for everbody - there's no upside to this," he said.

"USA is one of our major markets and if this is true, if this is actually a confirmed case of BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy], then there will in a short period of time be a hell of a glut of beef in the US owing to the fact that they won't be able to export in the immediate future, so they'll have a mountain of beef."

But one of the biggest independent exporters of Australian beef, Sanger Australia Limited, says the news is not all doom and gloom.

The company's Richard Raines says the case shows that the testing regime for mad cow disease is working worldwide, which should comfort consumers.

He says after the detection of mad cow in the US it is almost certain that Japan and Korea will ban any beef imports from the US, opening the door for increased Australian sales.

"Australia is still at this stage in a very enviable position of being on the lowest risk category," he said.

"We've had no incidents here and touch wood, keep the fingers crossed, we won't.

"But if America is excluded from Asia, which will be the main market for their exports, if we were able to replace some of those exports that could be a windfall for Australia."

A spokesman for Trade Minister Mark Vaile says it is too early to comment on what the trade implications for Australia might be.