January 13, 2005

 

 

Japan's Poultry Farmers Still Struggle Post-Bird Flu

 

A year after a bird flu outbreak was snuffed out, Japan's poultry industry still has a bad case of the shakes.

 

Egg prices remain 50 percent higher than in February 2004 due to supply shortages.

 

Farmers are nervous about replenishing their egg-laying stocks, in fear of another outbreak.

 

The government, meanwhile, is taking flak for what critics say has been an ineffective response to the country's first case of avian influenza in 79 years.

 

After devastating bird populations across Asia, the disease made its way to Japan on January 12 last year, when a case was reported at a poultry farm in Ato, Yamaguchi Prefecture.

 

The situation was quickly contained, and no more incidents have been reported since.

 

A bird flu death was detected at a duck farm in southern South Korea late last year, but the virus was of a less harmful type.

 

Even so, the repercussions of last year's outbreak continue.

 

Sales of eggs plunged for a short time after the infection appeared as the country's health authorities raced to quarantine the affected area.

 

As prices dived, poultry farmers responded by choking back production. In the aftermath was a severe trimming down of the country's stock of 140 million layers by several percent.

 

But while customers were quick to regain confidence in the product, farmers have been much slower to return to business as usual.

 

"Some producers are reluctant to increase production because bird flu may strike again, and prices would go down,'' says one industry official.

 

The country's bird flu detection system remains unchanged: Foul owners are required to report suspicious deaths to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

 

To help encourage vigilance, harsher penalties have been introduced under the Domestic Animal Infectious Diseases Control Law. An owner who neglects to report infections faces a prison term of up to three years, or a fine of up to 1 million yen.

 

Previously, the punishment was a maximum one-year imprisonment or a fine up to 500,000 yen.

 

Since March, poultry owners who notice birds dying in an abnormal manner must continue reporting to the ministry every week.

 

The government has also been urging poultry farmers to use windowless henhouses to keep out wild birds, a common source of infection.

 

Though subsidies are on offer, the grants are mostly available only to co-ops of small-scale farmers. Many of the nation's henhouses operate on a large scale.

 

Poultry officials expect the supply shortage and high prices to remain for some time.

 

The average price of a 10-egg carton of medium-size eggs was 224 yen for the two weeks through January 7, according to a survey by the agriculture ministry.

 

Although this was the first price decline in five months, it marked the highest figure for January since 1991.

 

Poultry farmers started to increase the number of layers last summer, but the pace is slow, as it takes nearly six months for hatched chicks to start producing eggs.