June 23, 2013

New case of H7N9 human infection reported in Hebei, China

Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on July 20 that a new H7N9 infection was found in a 61-year-old woman from Hebei, representing another potential set back to the Chinese poultry industry.

The woman, whose illness is the first new H7N9 case since May 29 this year, is currently hospitalised and in critical condition.

Deputy secretary general of China Animal Agriculture Association (CAAA), Gong Guifen, says that the new H7N9 case will likely assert its impact on China's poultry industry and hurt the consumption of broilers. Gong says that by May 2013, China's poultry industry had suffered losses of about RMB50 billion (US$8.14 billion) from the earlier H7N9 crisis.

However, Chen Qingqing, a broiler market analyst, expressed optimism by saying that broiler prices are unlikely to drop drastically this time, given the fact that they are already at the lower end of range and it is only an individual case.

The latest H7N9 case has grabbed attention of the industry. Chen Jianhua, secretary of the board in Fujian Sunner Development Co., Ltd. (Sunner Development), states that the company will monitor the situation closely.