December 2, 2005

US poultry companies keep watch for bird flu

US poultry companies are keeping watch on the global movement of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu strain, but industry sources say it is highly unlikely this strain will impact the US commercial flock.

Chicken is the largest segment of the US poultry industry and is a US$36 billion wholesale industry for US producers, says the National Chicken Council, which represents US companies.

To date, the H5N1 virus has not been found in the US considering that commercial birds in the US are grown in enclosed facilities with limited human contact, it is unlikely that poultry will be infected via migrating wild birds as has been the case overseas.

The H5N1 virus has killed at least 67 people in Asia who had very close contact with diseased fowl. Health officials from the WHO and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention are concerned that the disease could mutate from poultry-to-human infection to human-to-human infection. WHO maintains, however, that there have been no confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission.

Because there has not been a case of this highly pathogenic form of the disease in the US, the nation's major poultry producers have not seen any drop in demand, and in fact, during its fourth quarter earnings call in November, top producer Tyson Foods Inc said US consumers have not cut back on chicken consumption. The USDA projects chicken production to increase about 3.2 percent next year. The USDA projects per-capita chicken consumption next year to be up about 3.0 percent.

The worry over the potential impact on poultry consumption is real, as consumers initially slowed down buying chicken in European countries where the disease was found, according to news reports.

US poultry companies are quick to point out that enclosed facilities used to produce poultry here are much different from how poultry is raised in Asia, where workers sometimes live in close proximity to the flocks.

Furthermore, US producers stress they have standard, strict containment methods to deal with any poultry disease.