January 6, 2006

US chicken producers tests poultry for bird flu
 

US chicken processors including Perdue Farms, Pilgrim's Pride and Gold Kist, are starting to screen all of their flocks for bird flu, more than doubling the number of tests conducted industry-wide in 2005.

The National Chicken Council, the Washington trade group coordinating the voluntary testing program, said firms producing about 90 percent of the nation's chickens have agreed to screen a sample of chickens from each flock before slaughter.

The move is designed to reassure consumers, domestic and foreign, that US chickens are free of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu sweeping into Eastern Europe from Asia.

The H5N1 strain has killed more than 70 people in Asia. Most of the victims had close contact with sick birds, but health officials worry the virus could acquire the ability to move easily among people, sparking a pandemic.

Tyson Foods said it began screening all its flocks for bird flu in the fall. Several of its competitors, however, screened only randomly selected flocks or those containing birds with flu-like symptoms.

In the US, a commercial flock typically contains tens of thousands of chickens. Bird flu, most strains of which are harmless to humans, is so contagious scientists can determine the health of a flock by conducting an antibody-based test on the blood of a dozen or so of its members.

The program will probably involve the testing of a few million chickens this year, a fraction of the 10 billion chickens produced annually in the US Regulators and the industry had been testing about 1.6 million chickens annually for flu.

While the deadly Asian strain has not been detected in the Western Hemisphere, it is causing issues for US chicken producers.

Some fast-food chains, such as the KFC unit of Yum Brands, recently began demanding that suppliers certify their chickens as free of bird flu. Also, a consumer backlash in some infected countries, such as Turkey and Romania, is beginning to hurt demand for US chicken imports.