Posted on 04/25/2006 2:50:59 PM PDT by blam
EU to help stricken poultry farms
France is the biggest poultry exporter in the EU
European Union agriculture ministers have approved a subsidy package for poultry farmers hit by falling sales and prices due to bird flu. The European Commission will cover half the costs incurred by EU governments.
Farmers will be eligible if they can prove that bird flu led to a slump in demand for their poultry.
EU data show that poultry sales have fallen by up to 70% in some EU countries, while prices have slumped by 13% on average.
Poultry sales are especially weak in Italy, Greece and Cyprus.
Italy and France have already said they will make a total of 163m euros ($200m; £113m) available to their farmers.
Previously EU aid could only be used to help farmers hit by an outbreak of bird flu on their property, or who could not sell produce because of veterinary restrictions.
Speaking in Luxembourg, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said farmers could now apply for subsidies to compensate for "market disturbances" arising from the bird flu scare.
Ten EU countries, including France and Italy, had urged the EU to pay more than 50%, but failed to persuade the other 15 countries, diplomats said.
The lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread to 13 EU countries - and in Germany and France some cases have been found on poultry farms.
H5N1 has killed more than 100 people since 2003 - mostly in Asia.
Gabz, you expressed a concern about the impact of Bird Flu on poultry farmers and the industry in general, doesn't look good.
I hear that the best way to revive a stricken chicken is with mouth-to-beak respiration.
England has a few cases too...if my memory serves me correctly.
At our house we just make "Stricken Chicken Fricasee." Waste not, want not. ;)
Thanks for the ping, Blam. Gives me a chance to vent:
"H5N1 has killed more than 100 people since 2003 - mostly in Asia."
Wow. 100 people died world-wide out of 6 Billion+ in three years' time. It's an epidemic of Biblical proportions, I tell ya! The sea should be turning to blood any day now. Expect a plague of locusts & frogs. I'd seriously like to know who and what is behind all of this hype. It HAS to tie in with the NAIS people. It has to!
The MSM is totally over-reacting to this, but that doesn't mean they don't want to take down the world-wide poultry industry for whatever reason. Maybe Oprah's behind it? Look what she did to the beef producers in America a few years back...and she's just one woman! Guess chicken chit causes Global Warming now. "Algore? Please pick up the white Courtesy Phone in the Lobby!"
*Shrugs & Continues Mucking Out Chicken Coop*
The decreases in the EU don't surprise me in the least. here on DelMarVa exports have dropped drastically, especially to Russia..........and we don't have bird flu here yet.
Where it has shown up, the demand for poultry has dropped far below the supply.
I bought extra chicken at some nice prices over the weekend.
:)
On a serious note, I wonder if China has been given or is trying to get import rights to the EU for poultry like here. The ole 'processed chicken presents no threat' arguement.
Yet all these other birds are being destroyed.
I've read that Russia is a big market for American dark meat which they prefer over white meat. Americans prefer white meat so we send the dark to Russia.
I've got a Tyson plant less than 5 miles away and one of Perdue's largest plants 15 miles down the road and I'm lucky if I can get leg quarters at 49cents a pound.
I'm not aware of the "processed presents no threat" but I do know that cooked to the proper temperature, even an infected chicken, which you won't get in the supermarket, poses no threat for human consumption.
I've read the same, and it totally cracks me up. Except for whole birds, I rarely buy anything but legs and thighs and I used to buy leg quarters in 40 pound cases for 10 bucks. I will occassionally buy boneless breasts - but the price better be well under $2 a pound and I better be craving tamales!!!
I learned about the Russian dark meat thing when I asked why chicken leg quarters were selling at $.19 a pound. Seems they temporarly blocked chicken imports from the USA.
I bought leg quarters today at Wal-Mart for $.43 a pound.
$.19 a pound?????????? Holey Guacamoley. I haven't seen a price like that in years - and I live in chicken growing country.....SHEESH.
Don't you feel like you're whistling while passing a graveyard when you read this stuff!
Infected raw chicken would pose a threat both at the processing facility and to those opening a package at home. Flu is airborne.
By Anil Dawar and Stephanie Condron
(Filed: 27/04/2006)
About 35,000 chickens were being slaughtered on a farm in Norfolk last night after a form of bird flu was found in dead birds.
Scientists from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the H7 form of avian influenza had been discovered in samples taken from the chickens. No trace of the more deadly H5N1 strain had been found.
Defra has banned the movement of all birds in and out of the broiler breeder farm in Dereham and, as a precautionary measure, all 35,000 birds on the premises were being slaughtered. Experts said that workers at the farm would be given the drug Tamiflu, which the Government has been stockpiling in case of a pandemic.
Further tests are being carried out today at Government laboratories in Weybridge, Surrey, to establish which strain it is and whether it is the highly pathogenic version.
Private vets reported the dead birds to the State Veterinary Service on Tuesday and tests on the birds and at the farm started early yesterday.
An exclusion zone may be set up if today's results show that the disease is the highly infectious version.
Bird flu viruses have 16 "H" sub-types and nine "N" sub-types. Four types of the virus infect humans: H5N1, H7N3, H7N7 and H9N2.
Most cause only minor symptoms but H5N1 has led to more than 100 deaths in south-east Asia, China and Turkey.
The World Health Organisation says that the H5 and H7 strains "are always a cause for concern" because of their ability to mutate. Avian flu can pass to humans but that requires extremely close contact with infected birds, particularly faeces. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "There is no definite confirmation that this is a virus that has human health implications. As a precautionary measure those who may have been exposed would be offered the appropriate treatment."
Prof Hugh Pennington, a bird flu expert, said that H7 had killed humans before. "There was an outbreak in Holland about three years ago and one vet died," he said. "But you have to have very close contact with the birds."
The professor said at first sight the disease looked like "a highly virulent bird flu".
"Bird movement controls should be put in place around them."
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