Virus Takes A Toll on Texas Poultry- Cockfighters Probably Responsible

[Political Animal]

Article includes 2 photos:
 
VIRUS TAKES A TOLL ON TEXAS POULTRY
The New York Times, Simon Romero, May 16, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/16/business/16CHIC.html?tntemail1
 

Acogdoches, Tx. — David Alders's business is up a
gravel road behind his white, two-story farmhouse: six
air-conditioned poultry houses, each filled with
25,000 squawking chickens — some 150,000 chickens in
all, gorging on buckets of corn feed and sipping water
from plastic nipples suspended in the air. They are
healthy chickens, and they provide a comfortable
living for Mr. Alders, a lanky 42-year-old with eight
children whose family has farmed on the outskirts of
this blistering East Texas town since the 1830's. Now,
though, his livelihood is at risk. The detection some
weeks ago of a virulent, chicken-killing virus in a
few fighting cocks across the state in El Paso has
prompted jittery — and some here say revenge-minded —
governments from the European Union, Mexico, Russia,
Japan and even Cuba to embargo imports of Texas
poultry. 
 
Never mind that no trace of the virus, exotic
Newcastle disease, has been found in East Texas, the
state's main poultry producing area. Or that
Nacogdoches, an important base of operations for large
food companies like Tyson Foods and Pilgrim's Pride,
is closer to St. Louis than El Paso. Geography aside,
the state's poultry industry, which ranks No. 6 in the
country, says it stands to lose about $100 million as
a result of the embargoes. "The paranoia level has
gotten turned up a few notches since the poultry
industry here is paying for an isolated incident many
hundreds of miles away," said Mr. Alders, who grows
chickens for Pilgrim's Pride. "You can understand our
concern, when we send most of our dark meat products
to Mexico and Russia. We don't know what we're going
to do if those markets continue to shut us out."
 
Consolidation in the poultry industry in recent years
contributed to rising prosperity for many chicken
growers. But the resulting efficiencies have fueled
concern that the industry is more vulnerable to
diseases like exotic Newcastle and avian influenza
that can spread rapidly in regions producing millions
of birds every month. Poultry producers in other
states, especially California, have also been affected
by concern over the possible spread of exotic
Newcastle, which was detected in October in Los
Angeles by epidemiologists from the United States
Department of Agriculture after it moved from backyard
flocks to more than 20 commercial poultry operations
in the state. Since then, the U.S.D.A. has destroyed
more than 3.5 million birds in California in an effort
to prevent the spread of the disease, which is often
referred to as END. Nonetheless, isolated cases have
been detected in Nevada, Arizona and, finally last
month, El Paso, after an owner returned from a
cockfight in southern New Mexico and infected his game
birds. Chickens from California, Nevada and Arizona
have fallen victim to embargoes, as well.
 
The disease can kill virtually every bird in an
unvaccinated flock, and vaccines are useless against
some of its toughest strains. Infected birds often
suffer fits of sneezing, diarrhea and muscular tremors
before dying in 2 to 15 days. The disease is
transmitted through infected birds' droppings and
secretions, but can also be spread by humans who come
in contact with the virus. Experts do not consider the
disease a risk to humans. The last major outbreak was
in California in 1971, when the federal government
destroyed more than 11 million birds at a cost of $56
million. 
 
Here in Texas, farmers and industry executives have
privately complained that some countries seemed quick
to impose embargoes after the recent breakout. They
suggest that the moves were in retaliation for strict
controls on some imports by the United States, like
new tuberculosis exams for cattle coming from Mexico
or tariffs on steel products from Russia. Publicly,
however, executives at large poultry producers are
hesitant to criticize the embargoes, anxious not to
irritate important trading partners or regulators in
places where the companies have established
operations. For example, Pilgrim's Pride, based in
Pittsburg, Tex., also operates a large processing
plant in the Mexican state of Querétaro, which mainly
supplies nearby Mexico City. But the industry is not
shy about warning of the consequences of the embargoes
for farmers. "We're certainly upset about this," said
James Grimm, executive vice president of the Texas
Poultry Federation, which is based in Austin. "All of
our markets are set up for export, so this disruption
in trade is causing a lot of distress." 
 
Epidemiologists almost always react quickly to any
sign of exotic Newcastle. According to the U.S.D.A.,
the virus has sometimes been spread by debeaking and
vaccination crews, truck drivers and manure haulers. 
"END is the most virulent disease known to birds on
the planet, essentially what hoof-and-mouth disease is
to livestock," said Larry Hawkins, a U.S.D.A.
spokesman. "It is unfortunate that those folks in East
Texas are suffering. But if there's any silver lining,
it's that we haven't found any additional examples of
the disease in that area." 
 
The latest outbreak in California — which is showing
signs of coming under control — and the small
outbreaks in Arizona, Nevada and Texas, are not
expected to have much of an impact on consumers in the
United States, although prices for dark chicken meat
could fall as export restrictions result in bigger
domestic stockpiles. Unlike consumers in the United
States, who largely favor white meat, markets abroad
are largely focused on dark meat. Mexico and Russia
are the largest importers of poultry from East Texas,
where the industry is clustered around farms and
processing plants east of Interstate 35. The poultry
industry employs about 15,000 people in Texas, making
it a rival to the state's larger beef industry. In
Nacogdoches, population about 30,000, Pilgrim's Pride
recently surpassed Stephen F. Austin State University
as the city's largest employer, with 1,800 employees.
But that concentration of chicken growing activity
carries risks. "If you're an exotic disease like
Newcastle, you just died and went to heaven," said Dr.
Travis Cigainero, corporate veterinarian for Pilgrim's
Pride in the United States and Mexico. "There's no
doubt that the evolution of the industry has created
more efficiency, but it's also made it more vulnerable
to catastrophic diseases."
 
Dr. Cigainero, who was in Nacogdoches this week to
accompany a group of Russian sanitary inspectors, said
poultry producers wanted to increase bio-safety
measures on poultry farms by, for example, using
sterilized white cotton suits and plastic boot
sheaths. But while Mr. Alders takes such steps on his
farm here, doing so is largely up to individual
contract farmers. Moreover, Dr. Cigainero added, such
measures are thought to be rare among cultivators of
fighting cocks, many of whom travel across state lines
or into Mexico for cockfights. "One of the unfortunate
features of exotic Newcastle disease is that it
doesn't discriminate among birds, whether they are
poultry hens, fighting chickens or ostriches," Dr.
Cigainero said. "It's an equal-opportunity attacker."
 
Mexico and Russia have been limiting imports of Texas
poultry since last year, citing sanitary concerns,
though some people in the American industry suspect
them of trying to protect local producers. Wall Street
analysts say that the restrictions have squeezed
revenues and profits at companies like Tyson and
Pilgrim's Pride, whose chicken fetches less on glutted
global markets but must still pay growers like Mr.
Alders under contracts that predate the trade
problems. If the embargoes endure, the squeeze will
reach Mr. Alders, too. And there is not much he can do
to stop it. "The scary thing is that a poultry worker
at a cockfight can get in his pickup and transmit the
virus a thousand miles away," Mr. Alders said. "If
he's wearing the same boots at his destination, then
that virus can thrive."

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