USDA confident in bird flu preparations; poultry industry says sales are normal

Food & Drink Weekly, Nov 14, 2005

USDA said last week it is equipped to handle a potential bird-flu outbreak, stressing that milder forms of the virus periodically hit the United States. "There is no reason for an overreaction" if a less virulent form of bird flu emerges during the coming bird-flu season, said Ron DeHaven, administrator for USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The statements from APHIS were made last week to quell any consumer panic about the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which can be deadly to humans and has spread from Asia into Romania, Turkey, Greece and Russia in the past few weeks. The agency wants "to assure the public there's absolutely no reason not to have turkey for Thanksgiving," he said.

The agency is randomly sampling live chickens and turkeys at commercial farms nationwide to check for the virus. Additionally, the Interior Department, which tracks and protects the nation's wildlife, is surveying samples from 2,000 to 3,000 wild birds annually to determine whether birds from other countries could bring the virus to America. Interior also sampled about 12,000 birds in the past five years and has found a low incidence of avian influenza that affects only birds.

Most of the testing has been done in Alaska, but Richard Kearney, wildlife program coordinator for the department's U.S. Geological Survey, said the agency is considering tests in Eastern states that would check birds from Europe.

Meanwhile, poultry retailers and processors say they are not worried that avian influenza fears will dampen holiday season sales even as a less serious strain of avian influenza was reported in Canada earlier this week. U.S. turkey and chicken industries are not expecting a sales plunge. "I think that consumers have come to understand what the avian influenza issue is," said Sherrie Rosenblatt, spokeswoman for the National Turkey Federation.

The U.S. chicken industry reported slower sales in recent weeks, but the National Chicken Council said the upcoming holiday season is generally a "softer" sales period compared with its summer peak. "We have no reason to believe that consumers are turning away from this product" because of a bird-flu panic, said spokesman Richard Lobb.

ConAgra Foods Inc., the food manufacturer that sells Butterball turkeys, received a "minimal" number of calls about bird flu on its consumer line in the past few weeks, said spokeswoman Tania Graves. The company has not seen a drop in sales because of bird flu, Graves said. Cargill Inc. also received a handful of consumer calls on bird flu but no drop in turkey sales, spokesman Mark Klein said.

The strain found in Canada is an H5 strain that poses no "new threat to human health," the Canadian agency said. However, the H5 strain does have the potential to mutate into a more virulent form. Canada's Food Inspection Agency said it will do more detailed testing this week.