Outbreak could have big impact on exportsBy Peter A. Buxbaum, AJOTPublic concern over an outbreak of avian flu is centered primarily around human health issues. While outbreaks of the H5N1 virus, as the current virulent strain is technically known, has led to the destruction of hundreds of thousands of birds in East and Southeast Asia, it has also spread to a limited degree from birds to humans. Should the virus mutate to where it could spread from human to human, an influenza pandemic, involving a global outbreak of disease, could ensue. Poultry producers in the United States characterize the avian flu as an animal, rather than a human, health issue. They have instituted programs to monitor the health of their birds and have outlined steps to be taken if disease is detected. The US government is also taking measures to protect domestic poultry from outside infection. Lost in all the talk of a human pandemic, as serious as that possibility may be, is the potential impact on US exports should avian influenza break out in a major way among US birds, even if it does not spread to people. The US is the world’s largest producer and exporter of poultry meat, the second-largest egg producer, and the world’s largest exporter of broilers and turkeys, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Total annual US poultry production is valued at $23.3 billion; broiler production at $15.2 billion; eggs at $5.3 billion; and turkeys at $2.7 billion. US broiler exports exceed $1.5 billion annually and turkey exports are estimated at $265 million. An outbreak of disease in the United States, clearly, would have a major impact on the industry. Nor are avian flu outbreaks unknown in the United States. A major outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza occurred in 1983 and 1984, leading to the demise of some 15 million broilers and hens, many of them in Pennsylvania. A more recent and less destructive outbreak in the US of a low pathogenic avian flu strain took place in 2004, according to Patrick Pilkington, vice president of live production services, at Tyson Foods, Inc., a large producer of chicken, as well as beef and pork, headquartered in Springdale, AR. “Poultry products supplied domestically and internationally by US companies are safe for consumption,” said Ray Atkinson, director of corporate communications at Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation, a Pittsburg, Texas-based company that is the largest chicken producer in the United States and the second largest in Mexico. “You can’t get avian influenza from properly handled and cooked food. Pilgrim’s Pride voluntarily tests all of our flocks for avian influenza. This amounts to thousands of tests every week.” Tysons Foods conducts 15,000 tests per week for avian influenza, five times the level of a year ago, according to Pilkington. Pilgrims Pride’s program, which follows guidelines issued by the National Chicken Council, calls for euthanizing any flock found to have the H5 or H7 avian influenza, the two strains currently being closely tracked, according to Atkinson. “None of these birds would ever enter the food chain,” he added. “In addition, a control zone would be established around any affected flock in which other flocks would be held and tested, with testing repeated weekly. The continued testing would ensure that all other flocks are clear of H5 or H7 avian influenza before going to market.” The H5 and H7 strains are the only known forms of the disease currently thought to be capable of changing from the mild, low pathogenic form to the high pathogenic form that causes widespread mortality in poultry, explained Pilkington. Protective measuresThe US government has deployed the forces of the Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Interior, and Health and Human Services in an effort to keep diseased birds out of the country. “The Department of Interior monitors wild bird populations through the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Geological Surve