Survey: A.I. Find in U.S. Will Hurt Poultry Consumption

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Expect poultry consumption to decline if a case of highly pathogenic avian influenza is discovered in a U.S. poultry flock, and the level of decline will likely vary in different parts of the nation.

So concludes research by Kansas State University, which surveyed 2,000 people by mail in Wichita, Kan., and Los Angeles – 1,000 in each city – to find out their reactions to various food-safety situations. Approximately 30 percent responded to the Food Safety Consortium-funded survey with a higher response rate coming from Wichita.

Here’s background on the research. The survey supposed that a case of A.I. was found in Montana and asked respondents’ how poultry consumption would change. Sean Fox, a K.S.U. agricultural economics professor who supervised the research, said 70 percent of Wichitans indicated their consumption wouldn’t change, whereas the corresponding percent for Los Angeles was 50 percent. Meanwhile, 14 percent of Los Angeles respondents said they would stop consuming poultry entirely while only 7 percent in Wichita said they would do so.

The survey was designed to quantify the potential impact on the poultry industry of a domestic A.I. outbreak.

"We figured the risk to commercial poultry flocks in the U.S. was very low, but there were indications that bird flu was being carried by migratory birds and the chances of it appearing in a wild bird were reasonably high – though it hasn’t happened yet," Mr. Fox said.

The discovery of A.I. in a U.S. flock might result in restrictions against the nation’s poultry by importing countries, which is what happened following the U.S.’s first bovine spongiform encephalopathy discovery several years ago. If that happened, Mr. Fox said prices of U.S. birds would decrease and production would then be reduced.

Source: MeatPoultry.com