NEWS: China Stops USA Poultry Imports/Bird Flu in Delaware

China's ban on U.S. poultry follows similar bans by Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, after officials in the U.S. state of Delaware reported a mild form of avian flu in a flock there.

ap.tbo.com...

It seems this epidemic of the Avian Flu has crossed the Atlantic and is now in Delaware.
U.S. officials have said there is no threat to human health from the flu strain found in Delaware last week because it is different from the one that has spread to the human population in Asia, killing at least 18 people.

"Prompt reaction to an avian flu outbreak likely limited the disease to the small Delaware farm where it has been detected, but fallout from a series of foreign bans on imports could sting the poultry industry, experts say.
The response has been quick "and everyone is expecting it will be completely contained," said Corrie Brown, an infectious animal disease expert at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine.
Tests on 19 of 20 chicken houses in central Delaware surrounding the infected flock were negative for avian flu, with results expected shortly on the final house, state officials said Monday. A clean bill of health could lead to a lifting of the foreign trade bans. Brown, a former USDA official, said poultry exports account for about 20 percent of the U.S. poultry industry. "

ap.tbo.com...



[Edited on 10-2-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

Tyson foods which is the largest processor of chicken and other meats faced a $.33 cents drop in stock prices today.

[Edited on 2-9-2004 by worldwatcher]

With a case of Avian (chicken) flu, Pilgrim's Pride and Fellow chicken producers Tyson Foods and Sanderson Farms are seeing their stock prices drop.

Tyson stock prices continues to drop today, down $0.38 to $16.32

I hope Canada follows suite and bans American Poultry after their knee-jerk reaction to our beef industry. I'm all for protecting citizens, but sometimes I think the US is heavy handed. Now it's the rest of the worlds turn.

seems to be an effect of our factory farming turning up in everything leaving america.

Update:

Farms Quarantines, 72,000 chickens slaughtered.

Officials took swift action after the second case of bird flu was found in Delaware, ordering the slaughter of 72,000 more chickens and the quarantine of 80 farms as they tried to avert more foreign bans on a billion-dollar export industry.
The chickens were from a commercial flock in northern Sussex County and were killed Tuesday afternoon, said Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Michael Scuse.

Perdue Farms said it destroyed the chickens to prevent the spread of the disease and the flock was believed to have been infected by nearby chickens raised for the New York City live markets.

I wonder if, or maybe more appropriately, when, this will show up in other American states...

me too... I told my mom to stop buying her chickens from the live poultry market in brooklyn, when I read the chickens were meant for New York.

Good call. Even though the officials say that humans haven't contracted this strain of avian influenza doesn't mean they won't.