August 9, 2004

 

 

Malaysian Poultry Industry Unruffled By Bird Flu

 

Malaysian poultry players are not ruffled by reports of an import ban on Malaysian birds by Japan and Singapore following a suspected case of bird flu in a duck farm in Kampar, Perak.

 

Dindings Poultry Processing Sdn Bhd, an integrated poultry unit of Malayan Flour Mills Bhd, says it is not worried as the duck farm has been given a clean bill of health after tests by the Perak veterinary services cleared the birds of avian influenza.

 

"I understand that the Department of Veterinary Services is already talking to the Japanese authorities on the suspension of imports," Dindings Poultry executive director Dr Yap Teow Chong said.

 

"This (the ban) is just an overreaction," he says.

 

Japan accounts for about 7% of Dindings Poultry's total exports. It also exports to Hong Kong and Singapore.

 

It was reported that Japan suspended poultry imports from Malaysia on Aug 5 after Singapore's Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) cited a suspected case of H5 bird flu in live ducks shipped from a farm in Kampar.

 

AVA suspended the import of birds from the farm, but said it was a precautionary measure as the suspected infection was low grade and not likely to pose a public health risk.

 

Another poultry company DBE Gurney Resources Bhd says Malaysian consumers are more educated now after the virulent H5N1 type bird flu swept through Asia early this year and killed 24 people.

 

"Malaysia's poultry exports are not very big; local demand is still there and we have not seen any decline in sales since the report," said DBE Gurney managing director Alex Ding Seng Huat.

 

An analyst from a local bank-backed research house, however, says the ban by Japan could induce other importing countries to follow suit and affect the local poultry industry.

 

Prices of live birds ex-farm have dropped to about RM2.50 per kg from about RM3.20 earlier in the year. Malaysia produces about 1.1 million live chickens daily, mainly for local consumption.

 

Veterinary Services Department director Datuk Dr Abd Kadir Osman had said that ever since the bird flu scare started last year, the department had been conducting routine tests on poultry and other birds at farms and pet shops.