February 6, 2007

UK bird flu not seen impacting world's meat consumption

A Brazilian trade negotiator and consultant for the country's largest chicken meat exporters said Monday (Feb 5) that the recent outbreak of bird flu in the UK would not impact meat consumption.

"So long as we are not hearing about human deaths, then bird flu cases won't stop people from eating chicken meat," said Marcos Jank, a consultant for the Brazilian Association of Chicken Exporters (ABEF).

ABEF's executive director, Ricardo Goncalves, said last week that world consumers in nations hit with the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu would not reduce consumption. Jank agreed with the assessment. Brazil is the world's leading chicken exporter.

"We used to worry that the virus would mutate into something deadly, and be easily transferrable between birds and humans, or from infected humans to other persons," Jank said.

"That possibility is looking more remote. Human cases are only occurring where people live in very close proximity with infected animals," Jank said.

Brazil does not import any type of poultry meat from the UK, according to the Foreign Trade Ministry.