Scotland should be in a separate risk category for so-called mad cow disease than the rest of the UK as there have been no infected births in over a decade, according to the Scottish Government.
The last animal born with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was in 2005 and the country is now eligible to apply to The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) for "BSE negligible risk" status.
Scottish Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said: "If Scotland were to successfully apply for and be upgraded to BSE negligible risk status, we could be the first region in the world to do so.
"I am keen to understand the full implications of this status for industry, which is why the Scottish Government will formally consult on our proposals later this summer."
Mr Ewing made his pledge at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh, and outlined the potentially lucrative implications it could have for Scotch beef exports.
"Our premium produce is world-renowned but there are countries to which we are currently unable to export Scotch beef and Scotch lamb," he said.
"Achieving BSE negligible risk status could help open up markets across the world for these premium products, and potentially reduce waste and inefficiencies in the supply chain worth more than £1 million.
"The USA is already on the cusp of resuming beef imports from the UK while the Canadian market is now open for both beef and lamb.
"The opportunities for exports and producer incomes are potentially massive and it is imperative that Scotland is ahead of the game in promoting our iconic red meat brands.
"We could do so much to maximise such opportunities at home and abroad if we received our fair share of the UK's red meat levy, which would see Quality Meat Scotland able to invest an extra £1.5 million a year in the sector.
"That's why I'm calling on the UK Government to urgently bring forward legislation to give Scotland a fairer share of the levy, in line with the recommendations Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) received back in December 2015, and I have written to the Defra Farming Minister this week on this very point."
BSE has been reduced to just a handful of cases a year in the UK - none of them in Scotland - since the height of the health crisis in the early 1990s when there were tens of thousands of diagnoses a year.
It causes a lack of co-ordination and increased aggression in cattle, leading to it being labelled "mad cow disease".
It can be passed on to humans in the food chain, causing a fatal condition called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD)
The OIE permits a country or region to apply for negligible risk status if they have a surveillance programme, a control strategy and no new BSE births in the preceding 11 years.
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